


Bell Book and Candle

by ixchel55



Category: CW Network RPF, Supernatural RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-11-23
Updated: 2011-11-23
Packaged: 2017-10-26 11:51:05
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 23,079
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/282711
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ixchel55/pseuds/ixchel55
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jared is a witch. Not some New Age wannabe warlock; not a Hogworts wizard and not a frostbolt hurtling World of Warcraft mage - a hereditary witch like his parents before and like his brother and sister. He has a good life in New York's East Village with his little shop and apartment. He believes there's an order to life and that just because he has the power to alter things and influence the actions of people doesn't mean he should. And then Jensen moves into the apartment upstairs.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bell Book and Candle

**Author's Note:**

> This is a remix of one of my favorite old romantic comedies: Bell Book and Candle, staring James Stewart and the gorgeous Kim Novak.
> 
> Incredible gratitude to 3 awesome ladies without whose cheerleading, eagle eyes and astute comments this would simply be an unfinished keymash: **khaleesian** , whose comment of _(Please don't…you can do better than this)_ still makes me LOL! and appreciate her tough love and adherence to high writing standards; **spasticat** whose unflagging cheerleading and keen eye for details was invaluable and **slavelabour** who gave me such sound, truthful advice and helped me with my little wingding problem. These ladies deserve awards for putting up with my incredible procrastination.
> 
> Also, the artwork (minus the text) is the original work of artist Linda Mason and is used without her permission. *hangs head* But I do love it and I'm crap at doing my own artwork.

[ ](http://s41.photobucket.com/albums/e265/ixchel_55/?action=view&current=2bellbookandcandlebyLindaMasonsmaller.jpg)

[ ](http://s41.photobucket.com/albums/e265/ixchel_55/?action=view&current=black_catssmaller.jpg)

**Act I**

Jared twisted the deadbolt and flipped over the "Closed" sign. He'd set the alarm before they went out. The shop might be protected, but this was still New York City and it was still Samhain. Why take chances?

Padding barefoot through his shop in the lowering twilight, guided only by the light coming in from the street, Jared slipped around the edge of the filmy curtains that separated his living space from the sales floor of **_Bell Book and Candle_**.

"Anyone need another?" Jared called from the fridge, already pulling out two beers.

"I'm good," Katie said.

"Uh, I could…thanks, cuz." Ash grinned as he accepted the second beer.

Jared smiled and flopped into the big armchair facing the couch. Throwing his feet up on the coffee table between them he took a long pull from his beer and gestured to the boxes on the table. "So nice of you to save me the trouble of fetching your presents," Jared said wryly.

"No need to waste time," Ash declared, reaching out to pull the largest box towards himself.

Jared grinned as he watched his cousin stuff the big box down between his legs and the coffee table and began ripping off the wrappings.

"Tell me again why we give presents on Halloween, I mean Samhain," Katie asked, nudging a box toward Jared and taking her own small one. "Is this a 'witch' thing?"

" _Sow-when_ ," Jared corrected her pronunciation absently, sitting up and reaching for his own present.

"It's a Gran thing," Ash muttered, pulling open the top flap of the box. "But it's an excellent thing because we get presents from family now and more presents at Christmas from everyone else."

"Our Gran was very…um…traditional," Jared explained. "She had nothing against what she called the 'new religion' but she definitely wasn't Christian and wanted to separate herself and her family as far from Christian traditions as she could. Samhain is the beginning of the New Year for us; the 'Turning of the Wheel' begins anew tonight. "

"Cool!" Ash said loudly as he pulled out the two foot tall drum. Kicking the box and wrappings aside he wedged the drum between his knees. He ran his hands over the hide top and looked at Jared expectantly. "What does it do?"

"Well," Jared answered slowly, "If you strike the top of it with the flat of your hand it makes a hollow sound, and if you strike it rhythmically it makes music. If you have any talent, that is."

Jared watched Ash roll his eyes in exasperation.

"That's it?" asked Ash, disappointment evident in his voice.

"Ash, it's an extremely well made, handcrafted djembe from Mali. You said you wanted a traditional drum so you could step up from the bongos, so there you are."

Jared peeled the paper from his own box and paused before he popped open the top. "I've told you - more than once - that I won't spoon feed you power that you can't handle properly. If you want to enhance the drum I'll help you craft a spell for it and oversee the ritual, but I won't do it for you."

Ash pouted as Jared lifted the antique glass flacon from the box. "But I gave you magic," he protested. "I think."

"You did?" asked Katie, her surprise evident. "You told me it was massage oil."

"For all I know it could be," Ash sulked. "But it felt like magic at the flea market." At Jared's amused grin he defended his present. "It was all cruddy from being buried in some moldy basement - for decades probably - and the top was stuck. I cleaned it up and got it open. But I can feel the magic in it." He paused, "I'm just not sure what it is. Besides, it's a cool bottle."

"It is beautiful," Jared agreed, admiring the deep ruby color of the hand-blown bottle.

"If you want something magical why didn't you keep it for yourself," Katie asked curiously. "And why didn't you tell me what it really was?"

"Because he probably doesn't know what it is or how to control it and he was smart enough not to fool around with something potentially powerful and destructive." Jared nodded approvingly. "For that I'll give you a small bonus spell. We'll figure it out later."

"Oh, Jared!" Katie murmured when she opened the hinged lid of the small red velvet box. "It's beautiful!"

"What?" Ash demanded.

Katie turned the box so Ash could see the simple gold chain supporting the single pale amber gem with the slender glinting white streak down the center. The oval gem was set in a plain gold mounting.

"It's a cat's eye; a true cat's eye called milk-and-honey. Traditionally they're said to protect the wearer. This one has a little something extra woven into it," Jared told her with a smile. "As long as you wear it it'll work as a charm against intentional harm. It won't help with pure accidents or acts of nature though; it only works against intent." His smile melted away. "No more muggings," he added quietly.

Jared watched, his smile returning as his cousin fumbled the fastening of the necklace for Katie and wondered yet again how two such polar opposites wound up together. Katie was a smart, determined and totally together woman and Ash was…well, Ash. He was brilliant in his own way but quirky and scattered with a perennial goofiness about him. Somehow they fit together like two halves of some crazy jigsaw puzzle. Jared suspected that the irregular and sometimes jagged edges of their personalities helped to hold them together tighter than most.

"So, can you tell what it is?" Katie asked, nodding at the bottle Jared still held.

Jared tipped the flacon gently back and forth, feeling the rather heavy liquid inside sliding with the movement. Then he cupped the bottle in both hands and let his eyes go unfocused to concentrate on the contents. After a moment he looked at the other two. "I'm pretty sure it's a summoning spell," he said.

"So it is magic!" Ash crowed. "I knew I could feel it."

"It's not very strong," Jared said doubtfully, "but it should do the trick if not too much force would be needed to convince the subject. More like a 'nudge' in a particular direction."

"How does it work," asked Katie.

Jared pulled out the stopper and found a small wand with a brush attached that dripped a sluggish quicksilver liquid.

"A photograph would probably work," Jared mused.

"Let's try it!" Ash urged.

Jared gave Ash a doubtful look. Jared was pretty vocal about his stance on interfering with others' lives. Besides, messing around with an unknown potion was a little iffy.

"Oh come on!" Ash urged. "You said yourself it wasn't very strong."

"OK," Jared agreed reluctantly. He stood and moved through the door that separated his bedroom from the otherwise open apartment. He returned with a jacketed hardcover book and detoured by the desk for scissors. Returning to his chair he carefully cut out the photo on the back of the book jacket. The man in the photo was probably in his late fifties or early sixties and wore a battered trucker's cap and with an expression wavering between a smile and a grimace on his scruffy bearded face.

Ash snatched up the discarded book. " **New Orleans Vodou: the Truth Behind the Myth** by Jim Beaver," he read. "Why the hell are you reading this hack?" Ash asked.

"He's not a hack," Jared said absently. "It's actually quite well written and he obviously had an 'in' somewhere in the community because there's enough of it that's factual that he couldn't have just stumbled on it by accident."

Jared usually didn't use his abilities like this, but he wouldn't mind meeting the man. It should only work if Beaver had any desire at all to visit New York, then he'd just find himself wandering by the shop with an urge to come in.

"You mean the rituals and spells in here work?" Ash asked eagerly, thumbing through the book.

"No, there's always some little detail missing or something twisted just enough to render the rituals ineffective," Jared said. Using the small brush attached to the cap, he painted the photograph with a thick, silvery layer.

"What now?" Katie asked.

"A catalyst of some kind is needed, so let's try fire." Jared pulled a lighter from his pocket and touched the flame to the corner of the paper. It caught immediately and the fire began consuming the paper faster than Jared would have guessed it could.

Katie quickly pushed a decorative ceramic dish over towards Jared who dropped the rapidly blackening paper into it. They all had to turn slightly away and squint sideways at the brilliant bluish-white light that the burning photograph began emitting. It was much brighter than the size of the flame would warrant and to Jared's surprise actually seemed to be forming a mini-vortex.

Jared could feel a subtle power building in the room. It prickled his skin and raised the hair on his arms. The spell might not be very powerful but Jared could feel that it was well crafted and it gently tugged at a sympathetic place deep inside of him. It had an Old World feel to it, and the little mini-tornado - thankfully tethered to the burning photo - was quite mesmerizing. The spell obviously delivered in showmanship.

The rapid knocking on the window out front startled Jared from his absorption with the fire show. Turning, he could see a shadowy figure through the filmy curtains, moving across the front of the store to the accompaniment of yelling and the staccato rapping on the glass. Then the vestibule door slammed open; a heavy fist on the door frame rattled the glass combined with a rather insistent hand on the doorknob.

Jared looked back at the tiny burning vortex which seemed to be dimming slightly but was still swirling and crackling merrily away in the center of the coffee table.

"Shit! Put that out," Jared said, moving toward the curtain.

Before slipping through he looked back to see Katie remove the beer bottle poised to pour over the dish from Ash's hand then run to the kitchen area and grab up his morning cereal bowl soaking in the sink. He hoped that water would do the trick.

Jared ducked around the curtain and hit the light switch as he hurried toward the front door. The man in the vestibule was fumbling with his cell phone but when the light came on he stopped to watch with wide eyes as Jared walked toward him. As he wove around the counter and between display cases, Jared projected an air of calm.

"Holy shit! Are you alright? Is there a fire? Do I need to call 911?" the stranger blurted as soon as Jared unlocked and opened the door.

"Everything's fine," Jared soothed. "There's no fire, it was just a…a Halloween trick or treat that was a little brighter than anticipated. Sorry to freak you out, man."

"Are you sure?" the man asked, craning his neck in an attempt to see around Jared's taller bulk.

The first thing that struck Jared as the man leaned closer was the way he smelled - enticing. There was a faint whiff of subtle, spicy-citrusy cologne, but mostly he just smelled like clean, warm male skin. Then there were the green eyes behind those glasses. Jared felt a tug of recognition from deep inside, something he'd only experienced before when working magic. When he saw the man looking at him rather strangely Jared realized he'd been standing and staring like a dork.

"Huh?" Jared nearly smacked himself in exasperation at the less than intelligent response.

"I said are you sure everything's alright?"

"Oh, yeah," Jared quickly assured him, moving aside a little and gesturing toward the back of the store where the shadowed figures of Katie and Ash could be seen standing side by side with no - thank the gods - tiny, electric blue tornado in sight. "But thanks for taking the time to make sure we were okay. A lot of people might not have bothered."

"Well, I kind of have a vested interest in making sure there's no fire," the man said, thrusting out his hand. "Jensen Ackles."

"Oh?" Jared said.

The man's hand faltered ever so slightly. "You _are_ Jared Pada…uh, leck…i, aren't you?" he asked.

Jared clasped the man's hand warmly, getting a little lost in the warm, rough/smooth texture of it. "Yeah, that's me. I'm sorry we're closed for the day. But y'know? For a Good Samaritan and my would-be savior I can definitely make an exception," he added quickly, taking in the rest of the package before him.

Six feet tall, broad shoulders and slim hips. Yeah, that summoning spell might turn out to be the best present he'd gotten in quite some time. In a kind of a off-side way.

The stranger looked a bit wary, and when he shifted restlessly, Jared realized he was still holding the man's hand and maybe eyeing him a little too intently. Jared smiled reassuringly but reluctantly released his hand.

"Um, I'm Jensen Ackles," the man repeated.

"Yea-ah, that's what you said." Jared suddenly had a faltering suspicion that this beautiful vehicle might be powered by a less than well-tuned engine.

"I'm the new tenant upstairs," Jensen clarified. "The leasing office said I could pick up the keys from you."

"Oh. _Oh!_ I thought you weren't going to be here until tomorrow."

Jensen shifted a little. "Yeah. Things moved just a little faster than I was anticipating and I got into town a little early. I was hoping it would be OK to get into the apartment half a day early. But…if it's a hassle I can find a hotel," Jensen said.

"No, that's fine," Jared said quickly. "Why don't you come on back and meet the rest of your neighbors while I get your keys." Jared didn't think his luck could get any better. He knew from his leasing agent that Jensen came with an impeccable rental history and references, but now, seeing his new tenant with his own eyes? This was turning out to be a fantastic beginning to the New Year.

Jared locked the door and led Jensen back to his living quarters where Katie and Ash were parked on the couch once more, the picture of nonchalance and innocence.

"Jensen, these are your upstairs neighbors, my cousin Chad Lindberg - call him Ash - and Katie Cassidy. Guys, this is our new neighbor, Jensen Ackles. Jensen, you want a beer?"

"Uh, sure," said Jensen.

"Great!" Jared gestured to the chair he'd been sitting in then grabbed a beer for Jensen and detoured by the desk for the keys to the apartment upstairs.

"So Jensen, Jared said you…well, said the new tenant…was new in town. Where are you from?" Katie asked.

"Well, lately from Chicago where I've been living for the past three years, but originally from Texas."

"No way!" said Ash. "That's where Jared's from."

"Yeah?" Jensen asked, accepting the bottle.

"San Antonio." Jared snagged the chair from the desk and flipped it around to straddle it.

"Dallas…actually Richardson. So you live back here?" Jensen gestured around the living area.

"Uh, yeah. Didn't whoever you dealt with at the leasing office tell you? I own the building."

"Wow, that's pretty impressive," said Jensen.

Jared smiled. "Not really. I inherited the building and the business from an aunt on my mother's side."

Jensen twisted around slightly to look back at the curtain. "I was kind of busy panicking when I walked up and didn't really see what the shop is. What do you sell?"

"When Aunt Elsa owned it she sold mostly New Age type merchandise. I put my anthropology major to good use and began collecting and selling ritual and ceremonial objects from diverse religions and cultures around the world," said Jared. "Come down one of these days and I'll give you a tour."

"That'd be great…whoa!" Jensen jerked back into the chair as a dark streak sailed into his lap. Jensen's hands were raised as though to grab the cat he suddenly found in his lap, but instead they just hung there in the air.

There was dead silence for a moment.

"That's Phouka," Jared offered. "He usually isn't quite so familiar with strangers."

"Wow." Katie's voice was tinged with disbelief. "I've been here for nearly a year and I've never gotten the stamp of approval like that. The most I've been allowed is a quick scratch behind the ears, maybe a stroke down the back. I think my feelings are hurt."

"What about me?" Ash asked. "He usually treats me like yesterday's dead mouse. He even looks down his nose at my bribes."

"You try to bribe my cat?" Jared asked, amused, but Jared tuned out his cousin's answer in favor of studying Jensen and Phouka.

Phouka had walked his front paws up Jensen's chest and was staring straight into his eyes. They seemed to be frozen like that, with Jensen's hands still hovering in mid-air.

"Jensen? You alright?" Jared asked. Jensen didn't seem to hear him so Jared redirected his comment. "Phouka, that's enough, please."

Phouka ignored Jared for a moment before backing down then circling around to sit upright in Jensen's lap, like a king on his throne, facing his subjects.

Jensen started slightly, one hand dropping to the arm of the chair and the other hovering over the cat suddenly in his lap.

"Uh, okay. Hi," Jensen said, bemused. "And who are you?"

"That's Phouka. Sorry for the lack of manners. This is actually Phouka's apartment and he graciously allows me to live here and cater to him."

"Phouka?" Jensen asked, a cautious hand stroking the sleek, black cat.

"I hope you're not allergic."

"No, and I like cats. I had an 'outside' cat when I was growing up that, to this day, I don't think my mother knew came into my room through the window every night and slept on my bed," Jensen grinned.

Jared smiled back at Jensen until Katie spoke.

"So Jensen, what brings you to New York?" she asked.

"Business actually. I worked for the Chicago branch of Richings & Cohan Publishing. I just got a promotion to Managing Editor and a transfer to the home office."

Jensen spent a few moments satisfying their questions about his job before pointing to the book lying on the coffee table. "Now that's someone I'd love to meet. I understand Jim Beaver might be in the market for a new publisher. Rumor has it that he wasn't exactly thrilled with his experience at Lehne Publishing and snagging a hot new property like him would really be a great start for me. Unfortunately I hear he's something of a recluse."

Jared, Katie and Ash shared a quick look.

Phouka jumped gracefully down and strolled over to his food dish. After a sniff of the contents that he apparently deemed acceptable, he hunkered down and began eating with dainty bites.

"Hey, what are you going to sleep on?" Jared asked. "No furniture was delivered today."

"Oh, I stopped and got one of those fancy, self-inflating beds. I had a two bedroom apartment in Chicago but since there's only one here I'm going to need something for family and friends."

"Do you have much else to carry up?" Jared asked.

"Just a sleeping bag and a couple of suitcases," Jensen said.

"Well come on, I'll help you get your stuff." Jared stood and looked at Jensen expectantly.

"You don't have to do that," argued Jensen, rising to his feet, too.

"Well I know I don't 'have' to, but I want to," Jared quietly.

"Thanks," Jensen said, his voice soft. "I found a parking place about a block down."

Jared turned to Katie and Ash. "You guys want to get ready and I'll come up when I get Jensen settled?" Then he turned back to Jensen. "Hey, you want to come out with us tonight for a couple of drinks. We're just going down the street to our regular place. It should be a relatively safe haven in a city that'll probably be going a little nuts tonight."

"I don't know," Jensen smiled. "What kind of a place is it?"

"The Zodiac's a dive," Jared said with a smile. "But it's a good place to unwind for a little while."

"Yeah?"

Jared nodded, feeling a bit like an idiot - they were just standing there smiling at one another - but he just didn't care. "Yeah."

"Sounds like fun. Gimme a few minutes to…" Jensen faltered to a halt.

"What's wrong?"

"I forgot, I'm supposed to tentatively be meeting someone tonight. Could I maybe meet you there later, with a friend if she doesn't have anything else planned?"

Jared stiffened slightly and he fought to keep disappointment from chasing his smile away. "Sure. I'll give you directions while we get your stuff."

"Great. Oh hey, where's a good place within walking distance to get coffee in the morning? I forgot to bring my coffee maker and I don't want to wander too far because the movers are supposed to be here first thing."

Jared smiled again. Apparently Jensen wasn't planning to sleep over at his 'friend's' place. And chances are he wasn't planning on inviting her to share his inflatable bed.

"That's easy. Just go through the backdoor in your kitchen, down the stairs and tap on that door right there." Jared pointed to the door at the back of the apartment past the kitchen area.

"I don't want to put you to any more trouble," Jensen protested.

"It's no trouble," Jared said mildly. "I'm always up by seven and the store doesn't open until nine. There's always coffee in the pot and I might just be persuaded to feed you, too."

"Coffee will be fine." Jensen was still smiling.

Suddenly realizing they had an audience Jared looked over to see Katie staring between the two of them with a hint of a sly smile. Hell, even normally oblivious Ash seemed to be clued in if the way he was grinning stupidly as he looked back and forth between Jared and Jensen was any indication.

Jared glanced back at Jensen in time to see the other man look down and fidget in the pocket of his jeans before pulling out his car keys. There was a faint tinge of pink highlighting the tiny freckles across the bridge of his nose.

"Well OK then," Jared grinned. "Let's go get your stuff."

[ ](http://s41.photobucket.com/albums/e265/ixchel_55/?action=view&current=bellbookcandle.jpg)

  


Katie returned from the bar with the second round and leaned over Jared's shoulder to put the bottles on the table. "Look who just came in," she said in his ear.

Jared glanced toward the door and felt his mood immediately perk up. Jensen looked damn near edible in a brown leather jacket and jeans. Then Jared stiffened and felt his grin melt away in shock when he caught sight of Jensen's companion.

" **What. The. Fuck.** is _she_ doing here?" Katie snarled.

"Who?" Ash twisted around. "Hey! There's Jensen!"

Jared groaned, letting his head fall back. "Cohan," he muttered.

"No shit," Katie said.

"No, Richings & Cohan Publishing, the firm Jensen works for. I didn't connect the name but it must be the uncle she was always shoving in everyone's face," said Jared.

"Well, fuck."

"Yeah," Jared agreed. "Not only is he not gay, look who he's apparently involved with."

"I'm telling you he's not totally straight, either," Katie argued again. "Not the way he was zinging off of you earlier."

Looking at the way the woman was plastered to Jensen's side and the arm he had around her waist, Jared felt an abrupt sickening swoop in his stomach, like vertigo. Suddenly, Jensen's earlier interest seemed muted, maybe imaginary.

"Who is that with Jensen?" Ash asked.

"That," Katie sneered as she slid into her own chair, "is the Bitch of Bentley."

Jensen had caught sight of them and grinned, raising his hand in salute. Jared pasted on a smile that hopefully didn't feel too artificial and nodded in return.

Mouth falling open, Ash turned to stare at the approaching couple. "That's her? She's kinda hot." He grunted when Katie's pointed elbow suddenly dug into his side. "Hot in an evil kinda way," he quickly amended.

Jared watched as they made their way to the table. Objectively, Lauren Cohan was a very attractive woman. She seemed to be one of those women who improved with a little age. She'd been pretty at twenty but now, close to thirty, she looked rather stunning. Time had removed the youthful roundness from her face and left it sleek, elegant and exotic.

Jared was willing to bet her character hadn't improved with age though.

Lauren hadn't looked at the occupants of the table yet, she was too busy not masking her moue of distaste at the décor…or lack thereof…of the Zodiac. No doubt about it, the Zodiac _was_ a dive. But it was _their_ dive and not to be sneered at by outsiders.

Nope, no improvement in personality that Jared could see, and that was while she was still several yards away.

"Not a word," Jared warned the others, his gaze settling momentarily on Ash before waving Jensen over.

"Hey, I am the soul of discretion," Ash claimed in an insulted tone.

Katie just growled but arranged her features into something less lethal.

"Jensen!" Jared called when they were close enough. "Glad you could make it. Join us."

"Hey guys!" Jensen didn't seem to notice that his date had stopped dead after getting a look at her soon to be tablemates. "I want you to meet Lauren Cohan. Lauren…" Jensen looked around. "Hey, you OK?" he asked.

"Yes, I just caught my heel." Lauren smiled stiffly. She suspiciously inspected the seat Jensen pulled out for her before lowering herself gracefully.

"Lauren, these are the new friends I told you about. Jared who owns the building and lives on the ground floor and these are my upstairs neighbors Katie and Ash."

"We've met, actually," Lauren said, her voice smooth and not quite as Jared remembered.

"Yes," Jared said. "Lauren and I both went to Bentley College in Rhode Island."

"Rhode Island?" Jensen looked a little confused. "I thought you said you went to Cambridge."

"I took postgraduate courses in Cambridge," Lauren said smoothly.

"Oh, so that's where you picked up the accent," Katie said.

Lauren's expression hardened. "I'm sorry, your face is vaguely familiar but I can't recall your name. Did you go to Bentley, also?"

"Nope, I was a townie," Katie said, her tone defiant. "But maybe you remember my old boyfriend Milo Ventimiglia. Or Jared's old boyfriend Justin Hartley."

"I can't say that I do," Lauren said coolly.

"Hey," Jared interrupted, gesturing to Jensen's face. "What happened to the glasses?"

"Oh." Jensen flexed his fingers as though reaching for glasses. "I wore them because I was driving most of the day and didn't want to strain my eyes. I usually wear the contacts."

Jared studied him. "That's a shame," he said slowly.

Jensen stared at Jared, his lips parting and the tip of his tongue just peeking out to moisten them.

Lauren stood abruptly, turning to Jensen. "Darling, I'm going to go freshen up. If we can't go back to Uncle's party would you please get me a gin and tonic? I'm sure they don't have Bombay Sapphire here but please ask for something less…pedestrian."

Jensen stared after her retreating back in surprise.

"Tell the bartender to use my Damrak. I think it has a better flavor than Sapphire and I keep a bottle here for when I want something…less pedestrian." Jared saluted Jensen with his longneck.

Jensen's smile edged somewhere between a shared joke and embarrassment. "Thanks. Can I get you guys anything?"

"Thanks but we're good. We just refueled," Jared said.

As Jensen made his way through the crowd at the bar Jared turned to Katie. "Come on," he said. "Hold it together while we're all here and we'll just try to make sure we don't get thrown together again."

"What exactly gained her the title of the Bitch of Bentley," Ash asked. "Well, besides being such an obvious stuck up bitch."

"She's a man thief," Katie said tightly. "She doesn't care if they're with someone else or not. Hell, I bet she stole Jensen from someone else. She doesn't really even have to want them; they just had to be in a relationship with someone else for her to be interested. That's what she did to both Jared and me. She can't stand not being the center of attention. Knowing what you can do now - and by the way don't think I'm still not pissed that you didn't tell me you were a witch until Ash blabbed it all last year - I can't believe you didn't make The Bitch pay for all that shit," Katie said.

Jared twirled his beer bottle around in the condensation ring on the table. "Don't you think there were an exceptional number of thunderstorms with very little rain around Bentley during my senior year?" Jared's tone was oh-so innocent.

Katie stared for a moment, mouth gaping. "That was you?"

"What? What are you guys taking about?" Ash asked.

"The Bitch is terrified of thunderstorms," Katie said gleefully. "They totally freak her out. Like 'pop a valium every ten minutes' freak out. But it seemed like every time she left the campus during her senior year a thunderstorm would just suddenly crop up. By the end of the year she was a frazzled mess. She practically became a hermit."

"Dude! You're always so down on that shit," Ash said.

"Special circumstances," Jared explained airily.

Jensen arrived back at the table first. Considering how deep the customers were at the bar and how quickly she followed him, Lauren had to have been watching from the sidelines. She probably wanted to make sure she didn't get back to the table before Jensen but didn't want them to have time to talk without her.

From then on the mood of the evening plummeted. Lauren monopolized the conversation, always touching Jensen, constantly linking them together and dropping names of the crème de la crème of New York City society.

During minute lulls when she'd take a dainty sip of her drink, Jensen would try to ask Jared questions about himself and the neighborhood, but it only took seconds for Lauren to wrest away the flow of conversation again. She had a knack for turning every subject back onto herself. Jared could tell that Jensen was more than a little puzzled by his date's behavior. Apparently they hadn't known one another for very long because Jared didn't think Lauren could maintain the charade of being a decent human being for any length of time.

Jared would have been fine with that. He could have ignored the clever barbs directed at him. He could even ignore the subtle catty remarks designed to belittle Katie, because Katie was a big girl and could hold her own just about anywhere. But when Lauren started looking down her nose at a bewildered Ash who had never really learned how to defend himself against that kind of hidden and unwarranted attack, Jared felt he'd had enough.

Jared leaned back in his chair and let his mind and body relax. He stared with a heavy-lidded intensity at the jukebox on the far wall and words, barely parting his lips but fully formed with intent in his mind, fused with subtle hand gestures below table level. As soon as the current song finished the juke box skipped over all of the queued ones and settled on another. The opening chords of the song were very familiar.

"Oh hey!" Jensen grinned. "I haven't heard this in a long time. It used to be one of my favorites. Too bad I can barely hear it."

Jared smiled around the mouth of the beer bottle and made a tiny beckoning gesture with the fingers of his right hand still tucked below the table. The volume rose higher.

_Riders on the storm  
Riders on the storm_

Another subtle gesture with his other hand and lights began flashing and flickering and the background track of the song became elevated, enhancing the storm sounds behind the words. There even seemed to be a few strategically added thunderclaps to accompany the flashes of light.

_Into this house we're born  
Into this world we're thrown  
Like a dog without a bone  
An actor out alone  
Riders on the storm_

"Cool!" Ash said. "I didn’t know they'd amped up the sound system. This is…"

Out of the corner of his eye Jared could see Ash's words dwindle away when Katie quietly but meaningfully gripped his forearm.

"You a Doors fan, Jensen?" Jared asked nonchalantly, taking a pull from his beer while observing Lauren flinch at a flash of 'lightning' and a crash of 'thunder'.

Jensen didn't seem to notice her distress.

"Not especially," Jensen said. "I've always just really liked this song for some reason. Maybe because I've always liked thunderstorms. I always get the best sleep during thunderstorms."

Lauren blanched and took a hurried sip of her drink, nervously patting her mouth with a napkin.

"Me too," Jared said truthfully.

Jared might have felt guilty at the game he was playing if it weren't for the fact that Lauren had, just as he'd suspected, changed not one bit in the six years since they'd last met. She was still one of the most spiteful, egotistical and uncaring people he'd ever met.

A tilt of Jared's head and another flick of his fingers and a particularly loud clap of thunder and flash of flickering lights turned Lauren's next hurried gulp into a splash down the front of her undoubtedly couture silk blouse.

Jumping up, Lauren brushed futilely at the large wet splotch on her chest. "Jensen, I want to leave. I have a frightful headache and I just want to go home."

Jensen looked up, surprised. "That came on sudden, didn't it?" he asked.

"Lauren always was a little…'skittish' during thunderstorms," Katie murmured. She didn't even try to keep the amusement out of her voice.

"Oh?" Jensen was still confused. "But it's not a real thunderstorm."

Another loud crack of thunder and flare of lightning highlighted Lauren's pale face and produced a flinch that had her staggering backwards a step. "Jensen please!"

Finally alarmed, Jensen quickly stood and put his arm around her. Feeling the beginnings of guilt - because maybe the light and sound show had been a bit over the top - Jared leaned down and picked the purse that had tumbled from Lauren's lap when she jumped up. He held it out to Jensen only to have Lauren reach forward and snatch it from Jared's hand as though rescuing it from contamination.

Jensen looked startled and apologetic. "Sorry to cut the evening short."

"No problem," Jared said easily, any guilt that had been creeping up on him suddenly banished. "Come on down for that coffee in the morning."

"Yeah, I'll see you tomorrow," Jensen said as he was towed away by Lauren. "Bye guys!"

"I'm going to push the decorator to move up the timeline on my apartment, and then you can move in with me and out of this awful neighborhood." Lauren's voice wasn't discreet in the fading music as they walked away.

"I told you Lauren, we're not at that stage and I like having my own place and I like this neighborhood. Besides I've signed a lease," Jensen said evenly.

"Uncle's lawyers can break that lease easily," Lauren said, ignoring everything else Jensen had said and glaring over her shoulder at the table.

A twitch of Jared's hand and a final booming clap of thunder and blinding flash of lightning ended the song with a flourish. The effect was startling enough that even other bar patrons who'd been enjoying the unusual effects jumped a little at the boom and flare. Lauren swallowed a shriek and bolted for the door. Still looking bemused but now somewhat irritated, Jensen followed slowly behind with a final glance a small smile for Jared.

After the small smattering of applause when the music died, Ash broke the silence at the table. "Wow, I understand now."

Katie snickered with delight. "That? Was awesome! I wish I'd known you were behind the light and sound show back in Bentley, I would have savored it even more then."

  
[ ](http://s41.photobucket.com/albums/e265/ixchel_55/?action=view&current=bellbookcandle.jpg)   


  


Walking home at 2 a.m. Ash amused himself by sucking the illumination from the overhanging street lights as they walked. Jared didn't interfere, merely reminded his cousin to re-ignite the lights at the end of each block. It was Ash's new trick and it tickled him to an amazing degree.

"You should take Jensen," Katie said suddenly. "The way he keeps looking at you, you could totally seduce him away from The Bitch. It would be so easy it wouldn't even count as a seduction."

"He's with Lauren," Jared replied softly. "Even if he is attracted to me…"

"He is," Katie assured him.

On the other side of her Ash was nodding sagely. "Oh yeah, even I can see it."

"OK, even _though_ Jensen might be attracted to me, too, I can tell from just a few hours with him that he's not the kind of person to just dump someone."

"I bet all it would take would be a little 'nudge' in the right direction," Katie said slyly, ignoring Jared's arguments.

"Absolutely not," Jared said, realizing what she was implying. "A little parlor trick is one thing, but I'm not using my powers to lure in an unsuspecting man. How would that be any different than what Lauren did to the two of us with Milo and Justin?"

They walked in silence for a few moments.

"You know it was Lauren who narced on you during freshman year about sneaking out of the dorms after curfew." Katie's tone was nonchalant.

Jared stopped dead. "What?"

"Unhunh. You remember my cousin Patty? She's on the custodial staff in Richardson Hall. She cleans the Dean's office. When Dean Matthews retired they cleaned out all his old files and Patty saw the letter with the 'anonymous' tip on the top of a pile of papers waiting to be shredded. Lauren might not have signed the letter but that was still early in her career as The Bitch. She wasn't nearly sneaky enough not to use that fancy-ass paper she always made the stationery store in town order for her. Patty recognized it and told me about it."

"Why didn't you ever tell me about that?" Jared demanded.

"Well, she didn't tell me until a couple of months ago. I meant to tell you but then there was the mugging…" Katie shrugged.

Jared shrugged irritably. "OK yeah, that's The Bitch all over but…"

"Remember how you used to tell me that she'd sit in your section of the cafeteria when you were doing your 'community service' or whatever the hell your punishment was called? How she'd invite her friends and they'd make such a fricking mess for you to clean up? How she'd sneer at you and make fun? Well, she not only used your punishment for her own amusement, she also set it up."

Jared was silent the rest of the way home and Katie didn't push the topic. Only the occasional clatter of stiffly dried leaves scattered across the pavement by the breeze accompanied the rest of their walk.

Outside the building Jared looked up at Jensen's dark apartment. It could either mean he was asleep or that he'd stayed with Lauren. Jared guessed he'd find out in the morning, when Jensen either took him up on his offer of coffee or not.

  
[ ](http://s41.photobucket.com/albums/e265/ixchel_55/?action=view&current=black_catssmaller.jpg)  


  
**Act II**  


By the time 8 a.m. rolled around Jared had been awake for almost two hours. He'd drunk nearly a pot of coffee and stopped himself several times from snooping out whether Jensen was upstairs or not. Despite Jensen's protestations of 'just coffee' the night before, Jared had just finished cooking up more than enough bacon for two hungry Texas boys when he heard the light tap on the back door.

Jared let out the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding in for the last two hours. When he opened the door Jensen's face lit up with a smile that equaled Jared's even though the other man looked adorably groggy and rumpled.

"I'm glad you came down," Jared said, stepping back for Jensen to enter.

"No offense, but you could be some random whack job and the offer of coffee for my tragically caffeine free morning would probably lure me in,” Jensen said dryly.

"In that case, throwing in bacon and eggs would probably buy me a pardon from serial killer status, wouldn't it?" Jared grinned.

Jared waved Jensen to a seat at the breakfast bar and passed him a large mug of coffee, pushing the sugar and half & half toward him. Jensen ignored them and took a huge sniff of the fragrant steam, and then a healthy sip.

Jared watched entranced at Jensen's seemingly religious experience with his coffee. Or maybe a sexual response was more accurate given the practically orgasmic look on his face as he closed his eyes and slowly savored another sip. Jared silently vowed that if a bag of Starbuck's French Roast could put that look on Jensen's face, screw magic he was totally investing in a pound of Blue Mountain to keep him enthralled.

Jensen opened his eyes to find Jared grinning at him. Jensen smiled a little sheepishly. "I've got a little bit of a coffee addiction," he said.

"I can tell." Jared couldn't help another smile. He seemed to find himself smiling idiotically a lot around Jensen. "Scrambled okay?" he asked, moving to the stove.

"That's really not necessary," Jensen protested. "I'm not usually much of a breakfast person."

"You've got a busy day ahead of you," Jared said. "You need to fuel up. Besides the bacon's already done and I refuse to believe that a Texas boy can't be seduced with fried meat to go with his morning coffee. Now, scrambled?"

"Yeah, that'd be great, thanks," Jensen said. "Is there anything I can do?"

"How about toast?" Jared pointed at the bread and butter laid out next to the toaster on the counter.

The next couple of minutes were spent finishing up then sitting down at the bar to eat.

Breakfast was filled with small talk of Texas and the best place for barbeque and TexMex in New York City.

When they'd finished eating Jared dumped the dishes in the sink. "When are the movers supposed to be here?" Jared asked.

"This morning but they weren't really specific. They said they'd call by nine with an ETA."

"Good, we have time to relax and have another cup." Jared refilled their cups and led the way to the couch.

"Hey, if you've got something you need to be doing…" Jensen began.

"Nah, even though I'm almost always open by nine a.m. I can't remember the last time anyone was in before ten." Jared kicked his bare feet up onto the coffee table and gestured for Jensen to sit.

"You were barefoot when I got here last night, too," Jensen observed.

"I hate wearing shoes," Jared admitted, wiggling long bare toes. "I usually don't if I can help it."

"Doesn't it get a little cold sometimes?" Jensen asked.

"Nope. Heated floors," Jared said. "I splurged during the remodel. You ought to give it a try. It really gives you a feeling of freedom to be barefoot when most everyone else is wearing shoes."

"Yeah, maybe." Jensen cleared his throat nervously. "Hey," he began, "I wanted to apologize for the way Lauren acted last night. I don't know what got into her. She's not usually like that." Jensen sighed. "I guess it's partly my fault. She really wanted to stay at her uncle's swanky party. I guess it probably would have been good for my career at Richings & Cohan, but I'd been driving for the better part of two days and I just wanted to unwind, not schmooze the big guys. Besides, that's not how I want to climb the ladder at work."

"No problem," Jared shrugged. "Lauren and I didn't really run in the same circles at Bentley. We weren't exactly each other's favorite people."

Jensen looked relieved.

"How did you guys meet?" Jared asked casually. "Isn't she based here in New York?"

"She made a trip to Chicago with her uncle when the firm transferred their offices to the new location. But we really met because of a mutual…acquaintance. At the time I was dating one of Lauren's former boyfriends." Jensen was fidgeting with his coffee cup when he made this pronouncement but looked up quickly to catch Jared's expression. "I'm bi," he added.

Jared smiled and nodded slightly. "So, small world," he said, making it a non-issue.

"Yeah. Matt worked for R&C, too. He was one of the team of junior in-house lawyers. I remember seeing Lauren at the cocktail party hosted by the firm to baptize the new offices but I didn't meet her until later. Matt and I were out to dinner after the party when Lauren happened by. I guess the break up between them wasn't all that friendly, at least not on Matt's side. He was more than a little bitter about the whole thing and said some pretty nasty things to her."

"After that I wound up working with Lauren several times. She and I got on well together and that seemed to really piss Matt off and drive a wedge between us. We hadn't been together that long and seeing that side of his personality was kind of a turn-off. Matt and I agreed to call it quits. Lauren and I met up by accident that same night. We had a couple of drinks and commiserated about our experiences with Matt. To hear her side of it I guess I was pretty lucky that I didn't get in any deeper with him."

Later Jared couldn't be sure whether he was disgusted or relieved to hear the familiar tale unfold from Jensen. Lauren always had a knack for finding the cracks in any relationship and jamming herself into them. Her ego never would have allowed her to accept a former lover with someone as attractive and successful as Jensen.

Almost before the thought was formed, Phouka appeared and made himself at home in Jared's lap facing Jensen. From that point the decision about Jensen seemed already to be made.

While Jensen continued the story of his own unknowing seduction, Jared began stroking Phouka, long fingers moving slowly over sleek black fur. Jared didn't have to see Phouka's face to know that he was gazing with eyes barely slit open straight into Jensen's eyes. Then the cat began to purr with a hypnotic rhythm.

Jared leaned back into the corner of the couch facing Jensen, his tip-tilted eyes in a seemingly drowse to match Phouka's.

Jared's humming was more like random tones slipping between unheard whispered words, weaving in counterpoint to Phouka's rumbling purr. His mind was forming a perfect picture of his desires while he stared with deceptively sleepy eyes at the man on the other end of his couch. What Jared had begun rather reluctantly gathered force and intent in his mind until it filled every corner of it. He assuaged his conscience with the thought that he was only augmenting what was already there, breaking down inhibitions, not compelling.

Jensen's monologue slowed as Jared caught his eyes. Jensen was captivated and captured, a willing surrender without ever knowing there was a contest, until his words finally faltered and stopped. Jensen blinked heavily as he looked at Jared, his lips parting as he began to speak and then closing again when he seemed to forget the words. "Are you…what are you humming?" he finally said, his words barely above a whisper.

"Nothing really," Jared answered softly. "Don't have much of a singing voice." He tilted his head slightly, watching Jensen unconsciously mirror the motion. "Does it bother you?"

Jensen seemed to be on a time delay. "No," he finally answered. His reply was really no more than an exhalation of breath. "I like it. It's…" Jensen swayed slightly toward Jared then the front pocket of his jeans began to buzz. Jensen stopped with a frown but made no move to answer his phone.

"Jensen."

"Hmm?"

"Your phone's ringing," Jared said.

When Jensen's only response was a deeper frown of confusion, Jared gently set Phouka aside with whispered thanks then slid long fingers into Jensen's pocket and retrieved his phone. Jensen caught his breath and arched slightly at the contact.

Jared bit his lip in frustration at the truly lousy timing and leaned away from Jensen to answer the phone. "Hello?"

_Mr. Ackles?_

"Yeah."

Jensen blinked in bemusement.

_This is Stan with Singer Moving? We're just a couple of blocks away. Is there a good place to park the truck?"_

"There's an alley in back. Everything but the larger furniture can go up the back stairs. The rest will have to come around through the front."

_"OK, great. See you in a couple."_

Jared was shocked to see it was nearly 9:30. "They're only a couple of blocks away," he told Jensen as he stood.

Jensen's face turned up to follow Jared's movement but his gaze stuttered and faltered as it passed Jared's uncomfortably tented jeans. "Who?" he asked absently.

"The movers." Jared's voice was determined. "They'll be here in a couple of minutes."

Jared reached out a hand to Jensen who took it readily but tried to tug Jared back down onto the couch beside him. Jared took a deep breath and stepped back as far as the coffee table would allow and pulled Jensen to his feet. "I have such shitty timing," Jared muttered, squeezing by Jensen who swayed up against him.

"They're coming now?" Jensen's tone was rather plaintive as he finally caught up with the conversation.

"Yeah," Jared sighed. "Listen, I'll see if I can get Katie down here earlier than twelve so I can come help." Mentally he rolled his eyes at the thought of getting Katie out of bed before noon. Too many years tending bar at night had made her a real night owl. "We'll kick back with a couple of beers and some pizza for lunch then I'll help you tackle some of the unpacking." Jared hesitated. "Is Lauren coming over?"

"Who? No," Jensen scoffed. "Lauren doesn't even do her own dishes let alone lift or unpack boxes. Unless they come from someplace on Fifth Avenue."

"Great," Jared smiled. "It's a date."

"Yeah, a date," Jensen echoed softly, his eyes on Jared's face as Jared led him to the back door.

"Here," Jared said, quickly programming his number into Jensen's phone that was still in his hand. "Give me a call when they're gone if I'm not up there already."

He leaned over and tucked the phone back into Jensen's pocket. When Jensen swayed forward and rubbed the tip of his nose lightly into the hair behind Jared's ear and sniffed, Jared froze for a split second; then he tilted his face and caught Jensen's mouth with his own, pushing him up against the back door. Jensen buried his hands in Jared's hair and tilted his chin up, offering Jared a deeper taste. Jared shivered when Jensen’s tongue flirted with the edge of his teeth.

Jared pulled far enough away to catch that maddeningly full lower lip in his teeth; that lip and that lush mouth that had taunted him as he lay tossing in bed last night unable to sleep. He clutched at Jensen's hips, tugging him closer, his hands sliding beneath Jensen's tee shirt and over warm skin. Jensen moaned low and rich as he wrapped one leg around Jared's hips, rubbing against him and diving back in for his mouth again.

They were startled out of the devouring kiss by the banging on the other side of the door. Breathing heavily, their faces still just inches away, Jared swallowed while Jensen buried his face in Jared's throat, open mouth gusting warm, humid breath against his already overheated skin.

The pounding repeated against Jensen's back making him jump in Jared's arms.

"Alright!" Jared yelled, frustration rising in his voice. "Go ahead and start unloading, I'll be there in a minute."

Jared reluctantly pried his hands from hot flesh and braced them against the door on either side of Jensen's body.

"I'm going to call and wake up Katie and get her ass down here as quick as I can. But knowing her that'll probably still be a couple of hours," Jared said.

"You better light a fire under her," Jensen warned. His voice was hoarse and he stared intently at Jared's face. "It won't take them very long because I don't own that much crap. And the first thing I'm doing when they're gone is setting up the bed."

Jared swallowed deeply. "Fuck!" he whispered harshly, covering Jensen's mouth once more.

Jensen grabbed his ass with both hands and pulled Jared against him. Jared broke hastily away and put some distance between them.

"You go ahead and get started," Jared rasped. "I have to call Katie - fuck that, I have to go up and make sure she gets up - so I can open the store. She can take over a couple of hours early and I'll be up as soon as I can. What do we need?"

"Just food and beer," Jensen said. "We're going to get thirsty and work up an appetite."

  
[ ](http://s41.photobucket.com/albums/e265/ixchel_55/?action=view&current=bellbookcandle.jpg)  


  
To say that Katie was less than pleased to be roused 'at the crack of dawn' was an understatement. But once she wrangled the 411 out of Jared she was with the program and ready to enable.

By the time Jared hurried down the front stairs it was nearly 10:00 a.m. but he was still surprised to see someone in the vestibule peering through the glass door into the shop.

"Hi," Jared said as he opened the security door at the foot of the stairs. "Sorry, I'm running a little late this morning." He shouldered politely past the man. "Come on in and wait a sec and I'll get the lights on."

Jared held the door open for his customer while flipping over the CLOSED/OPEN sign. After shutting the door he hurried back behind the counter and lit up the store.

"I hope you weren't waiting out there too long," Jared apologized as he turned back to his customer. "It's been an…eventful morning already."

The man was bending to take a closer look at a trio of 19th century Haitian Vodou dolls in a case in the front window.

"No problem," the man said. "I was just passing by and saw the shop and decided it was worth a look-see. These are authentic, aren't they?" he asked, tapping the top of the glass case over the dolls.

"Everything in this store is," Jared said. "I go to a great deal of trouble to authenticate them and every item comes with a certificate of authenticity."

Jared stopped cold and stared, totally flummoxed. "Jim Beaver," Jared said and thought _'Damn!' That spell was a hell of a lot more powerful than I gave it credit for.'_

Beaver's eyebrows rose under his cap. "Have we met?"

Jared laughed. "No, but I just finished reading your book a couple of days ago," he said then held out his hand. "Jared Padalecki. It's nice to meet you. I was kind of impressed with your book."

"You know much about vodou?" Beaver asked. His handshake was firm, his hand rough. Not the hand of a man who spent an over-abundant amount of time in front of a keyboard.

"I know quite a bit about the occult and most of the world's so-called 'primitive' religions," Jared said, his arms spreading out to encompass the store. "You might say it's my stock and trade."

"In your opinion did I get it right? Or were the people I spoke to just shining me on? It's sometimes hard to get a straight answer from the people who are in the middle of it."

"Well, I'm not a practitioner, but from what I know, quite a lot of it was accurate - the majority in fact. But yes, they did cloud it up a bit."

"Hmmm." Beaver's tone was non-committal.

"I wasn't aware you lived in New York or even in New England," Jared said, fishing for information.

"I don't. I flew in yesterday for a meeting with my publisher." The man's gruff voice betrayed his discontent.

Jared's mind whirled with thoughts of Jensen and the opportunities opening up in front of both of them.

"Yeah, I seem to remember reading about a dust up between you and Lehne. You thinking of jumping ship?"

"Why? You got a suggestion?" Beaver asked, making his way around the store, looking into all the cases and gently handling artifacts left out on display. Beaver's tone was rather absent and off-hand but Jared got the opinion that the man was rarely either.

"As a matter of fact, there's a brand new Managing Editor at Richings & Cohan. I've only met him a couple of times," Jared hedged, "but he really impressed me."

Jim Beaver stopped and turned to look at Jared with speculation. "You got a name and a number?"

"Uh, yeah, I just might. Give me a minute."

Jared moved behind the curtain into his apartment, pulling out his cell phone. Tilting his face towards the ceiling, Jared cleared his mind of all but the simple image of Jensen pulling out his own cell phone, thumbing through the contacts and then calling Jared. He repeated that series of images again and again until the phone in his hand vibrated. Looking at the display Jared saw an unknown number with an out-of-state area code.

"Hello?" he answered.

_"Jared? It's Jensen."_

Jared smiled and he had a sinking suspicion it was due just as much to the sound of Jensen's voice as to the success of his quick spell. "Hey, what's up?"

_"Nothing I guess. I just suddenly felt like calling you. Is it a bad time?"_

"Not at all," Jared said, leaning his hip on the back of the big armchair. "I got Katie awake and on board with the plan. She said she'd be down to take over by noon at the very latest. How's it going up there?"

_"Really good. They should be done in about an hour. That'll give me time to shuffle things around a little, maybe unpack some stuff…"_

"Find the bedding?" Jared grinned.

_"Among other things,"_ Jensen retorted. _"Plus I'm going to need another shower."_

"Don't bother on my account," Jared said lazily. "I don’t mind a little honest sweat."

_"Hey Jensen! Where you want this?"_ one of the movers called.

_"I gotta go. Come on up when you can. I'll leave the back door unlocked in case I'm in the shower."_

The mental picture of Jensen standing wet under a steaming shower gave Jared's pulse a kick. "I'll be up as soon as I can," he promised.

After he hung up Jared pulled up his call history as he moved back into the shop.

"Sorry about that," Jared said.

Beaver looked up from an old hand bound original treatise on [Tibetan tulpas.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulpa) "No problem," he said. "I'm good."

Stepping up to the counter, Jared reached over and snagged one of his own cards and a pen. He quickly scribbled Jensen's name and number on the back of it. Jared handed over the card.

"His name is Jensen Ackles and he hasn't taken over his office yet - he just moved from the Chicago office - so that's his personal number. I'll let him know you might be calling."

Beaver held up the book. "You think it's possible to will something into being simply with the power of thought?"

"I think," Jared said slowly, "that the human mind is one of the most powerful forces on earth with unlimited and barely tapped potential. I think that a sufficiently strong or well-trained mind or a group of like minds aimed at the same outcome have the potential to accomplish damn near anything. I believe that nothing is out of the realms of possibility when it comes to the human mind and will."

Beaver was nodding thoughtfully, a faraway look on his face. "I think maybe you're right." He put the book down on the counter. "I'll take this," he said, pulling out his wallet and not blinking at the rather outrageous cost.

Beaver tucked his package under his arm then fished out the business card Jared had given him from his pocket. "You say you're pretty knowledgeable about religions?"

Jared nodded. "I know a lot about a handful of religions - mostly those practiced in North and Central America - and I know more than a little about most world-wide religious practices. Plus I have a pretty extensive personal library."

Beaver looked thoughtful for a moment. "Would you mind if I gave you a call sometime to pick your brain? Or if I had questions? I'd be glad to pay a consultation fee and give you credit should your information find its way into a book or article."

"Sure," Jared said, surprised. "Give me a call and I'll be glad to help if I can."

Beaver nodded. "Thanks for your time."

"No problem. It was really nice to meet you."

"Yeah, likewise," Beaver said, tipping his head in a nod as he left.

  
[ ](http://s41.photobucket.com/albums/e265/ixchel_55/?action=view&current=bellbookcandle.jpg)  


  
It was pushing noon by the time Katie put in an appearance. Jared spent the time keeping busy by unpacking and cataloging a shipment that had come in late the previous afternoon. After that there was nearly an hour with the occasional customer, fidgeting and way too many thoughts and second thoughts.

When Katie arrived he brushed off her questions with a promise of full disclosure later and cajoled her into taking care of the store the next day.

"It's Saturday!" she complained.

"Exactly! We're only open from noon to five. You get to sleep in and get off early. Come on. You know I never ask you for favors like this," he said.

"Well, okay," Katie reluctantly agreed. "But there had better be juicy details forthcoming."

Jared just grinned as he ducked back into his apartment to grab the six-pack from the fridge. He detoured to the bathroom to grab his toothbrush and as an afterthought he snagged a clean pair of boxer briefs from the laundry basket and stuffed them both in his pockets. Shoving his feet into flip-flops he left by the back way.

Taking the back stairs two at a time he tapped lightly on Jensen's door and then entered.

"Jensen?" he called. Getting no reply he stashed the beer in the fridge and went searching. As soon as he stepped out into the living area he could hear the shower running through the open bedroom door. Recalling that mental picture of Jensen sleek and wet and naked had Jared moving toward the bedroom but he stopped. Plenty of time for that later - a little more anticipation wouldn't hurt. So he took the opportunity to look around.

When Jared had inherited the building and a tidy little sum of money from his Aunt Elsa he'd sunk about half the money into renovating the entire building. He'd had the chopped-up apartments with pokey little rooms transformed into open concept living.

Jensen's furniture - what he could see around the small mountain of boxes - seemed to fit very well. Jared was glad to see a lot of bookcases, but then it stood to reason that a literary editor would be a reader also. He was interested to see what would fill them. Jensen's taste seemed to be modern without being obnoxiously so, with neutral colors that managed not to be too boring although it was a bit bland for Jared's taste.

Of course most people's décor was a little bland when compared with Jared's. He had travelled the world collecting most of the art pieces and artifacts he sold and he quite often couldn't help keeping the best for himself - at least for a while. His apartment changed quite often. But maybe once the rest of Jensen's things were unpacked Jared would get a more in-depth look at his personality.

Jared took a peek into the bedroom and smiled at the sight of the perfectly made bed in a room still brimming with the chaos of unpacked and overflowing boxes. Jared suffered a pang of serious 'bed envy' just looking at it. For the most part Jared didn't mind the small size of the bedroom he'd had framed into the downstairs during the remodel, but it did limit his choice of bed to a queen. He really missed his old California King. This was just a regular king but it would certainly do.

Jared sat on the bed, bouncing up and down a bit to test the springs. Perfect. He sprawled back with his hands behind his head and played over the few heated minutes he'd had with Jensen this morning. But then having a few minutes to think began to scratch at the edges on his conscience.

Earlier Jared had managed to shuffle this morning's actions into a less well lighted corner of his mind with busy work. The way their relationship exploded into full speed at his whispered spell bothered Jared. The guilt of using his power to push the attraction between them so fast because of his antipathy toward Lauren was eating at him. Certainly there was enough heat and chemistry between him and Jensen that he was positive it would have come to this anyway, but he'd let his disgust at Lauren's manipulation of Jensen push him into treating Jensen the same damn way.

Jared was suddenly determined to reverse the spell before anything happened and let what was between them cool down and proceed at its own speed. He'd need Phouka though, and Phouka was downstairs.

Jared had been so deep inside his own head that he hadn't realized the shower had cut off until the bathroom door opened. Pushing himself up to his elbows, whatever words he'd been intending to say dried up when Jensen walked out in nothing but a cloud of steam. Diamond glitters of moisture danced among the freckles scattered across a truly breathtaking expanse of bare, creamy skin as Jensen rubbed his damp hair with a towel.

Jensen jerked to a stop, wide-eyed, mouth falling open in surprise when he saw Jared. Jared could see the towel twitch in Jensen's hand, no doubt an aborted thought to drape it around his exposed body, but what flared in Jared seemed to ignite a backfire in Jensen. Jared tried to gather his fast disintegrating good sense before the heat simmering between them became a conflagration of epic proportions.

"Jensen…" he began.

The towel fell to the floor and Jensen stalked forward. He planted his hand on Jared's chest pushing him flat out on the bed once again.

"You're over dressed," Jensen said, crawling up to straddle Jared's hips.

Jared scrambled to find two brain cells to rub together to create the spark of intelligence. "Jensen," he tried again, but Jensen braced his hands on the bed on either side of Jared's head and sucked his name straight from Jared's mouth. Suddenly all thoughts of Phouka and reversing the spell vanished, shoved aside by more pressing and primal needs.

Jared's hands came up to cup Jensen's hips automatically. He squeezed the firm flesh hard enough to know there'd be marks but Jensen just growled and lowered his body to completely cover Jared's, his hands now free to bury themselves in Jared's hair.

Jared slid one hand around to Jensen's ass, squeezing the taut flesh, his fingertips straying into the moist cleft to the accompaniment of Jensen's groan. Jared's other hand travelled up smooth damp skin to Jensen's head, his fingers scrabbling at the soft, damp bristles of too short hair, trying to find purchase.

The sounds of moist kisses, guttural moans and panted breaths soon filled the room. Jensen rolled his hips, rutting against Jared's cock held captive behind his suddenly too tight jeans.

Jensen suddenly pulled his lips from Jared's with a loud gasp. Jared's wordless protest went unheeded as Jensen slid backwards off of him, shaking off Jared's grasping hands. Jensen's cock was fully erect now and bobbing hypnotically with his movements.

"Clothes," Jensen muttered. "Too many clothes." He leaned over Jared and fumbled with his belt buckle, making quick work of it and the zipper.

Jared quickly got with the program and began unbuttoning his shirt. When Jensen stepped back Jared tried to sit up and strip off his shirt but he was flipped backwards when Jensen grabbed the bottom of his pant legs and tugged Jared's jeans straight off of his body. Jared spared a brief prayer of thanks for the loose fit of his jeans and the snug fit of the boxer briefs that protected his already aching dick from the quick friction. Jared had already lost one flip-flop somewhere along the line and the other went with his jeans.

The drag of the jeans had already begun the work of pulling off Jared's underwear. The head of Jared's cock, already purple-red with the heat of his arousal now drooled into his navel.

When he was younger Jared had sometimes been embarrassed by the size of his cock. After the rest of his body caught up and filled out and Jared's confidence in his ability to please and not hurt grew, he realized that he was pretty damn lucky. Like right now.

Jensen stared at Jared's cock straining against the thin fabric of his underwear, mouth open and eyes glazed. Jared tried to sit up again to strip off his shirt but Jensen pushed him down once more and tugged the snug boxer briefs down far enough for Jared's cock to spring to attention. Jared's hips bucked up by reflex when he felt the warm moist breath bathing his cock. With serendipitous timing, the fat head pushed past Jensen's full parted lips and Jared gave a strangled cry. He would have thrust up further but Jensen laid his forearm across Jared's hips and leaned his weight on Jared to save himself from choking.

Jared honest-to-god whimpered as Jensen took his own sweet time sliding his mouth down Jared's cock. Jared felt Jensen hesitate when the head of Jared's cock bumped against the back of his throat. Jensen adjusted his angle and then swallow the remainder of the shaft down his throat.

Jared moaned like he was dying. He raised his head enough to see…Jensen staring back at him with heavy lidded eyes and full, full lips stretched tight around his cock. "Fuck!" he groaned, his head flopping back on the bed.

Sometimes Jared just liked to lie back and enjoy the sensation of a mouth working on his cock without the distraction of the visual, but there was no way he couldn't watch Jensen at work.

Jensen somehow managed to finish pulling Jared's underwear down and wedged himself between Jared's legs, lowering himself to the floor on his knees. He pulled at Jared's hips until he was closer to the edge. Jensen's eyes were a thin circle of almost iridescent green wedged between the whites and fully expanded black pupils and he continued to stare straight at Jared's face. He wrapped one hand around the base of Jared's cock so he could alternate working the head while pumping slightly and then deep-throating him again. The other hand cupped Jared's balls, fingers dancing between gently rolling the delicate contents and tugging firmly on the sac.

Jared pushed himself up onto his elbows and glanced desperately toward the pillows at the head of the bed. He wanted to be able to prop himself up so his hands were free to touch and explore Jensen, but they were too far away to reach. So he showed his appreciation with words and the occasional run of his hand through damp and tousled hair.

"You…you have no idea," Jared moaned. "So gorgeous…and you feel…so fucking good…"

Jared reached down and ran a finger gently around the rim of Jensen's taut upper lip. Then he wiped away the bead of sweat that trickled down from Jensen's temple.

Jensen let his eyes slide closed.

Jared felt the overflow from Jensen's mouth, his own pre-come and Jensen's saliva, trickle down from the base of his cock into the crack of his ass.

"Jen, your fingers. Gimme your fingers." Jared tilted his hips up slightly and spread his legs farther in invitation.

Jensen moved the hand from his balls, trailing underneath, gathering moisture along the way. A single finger probed the small puckered opening and slid straight in as Jared relaxed. Jared gave a hitched sigh and lay back on the bed.

"Another." Jared rasped with need.

Jensen withdrew his finger until only the tip was still inside the tight ring. Then he loosened his lips to let another trickle slip free. He quickly gathered the slippery fluid and returned to Jared's hole with two fingers, both pushing in slowly.

Jared moaned. "Christ, so good!"

The angle wasn't great from where he knelt but Jensen twisted his wrist and crooked his fingers and managed to find and caress the small gland that made Jared twitch and groan again. Jensen alternated between probing for effect and working his fingers - now up to three - in and out of Jared's softening hole. Jensen kept working his mouth on Jared's cock, sucking strongly on the upstroke with his tongue in constant stroking motion.

"Jen," Jared warned, fisting the bed covers tightly.

Jensen pulled off for a moment. "Bring it," he said, his voice hoarse and thick. He worked the slit of Jared's cock with the tip of his tongue then capped the head with his lips and jacked the shaft. His other hand twisted once again and Jared was being worked from both inside and out.

Jared cried out, fists tangling in the bed covers and body bow-string taut. His hips bucked uncontrollably as he rode the heat lightning of his orgasm.

Jensen finally had to pull off and one of the last weak pulses of Jared's release striped Jensen's mouth and cheek. Jensen licked his lips but he kept working Jared with both hands, but he stopped short of painful over-stimulation. Jensen's mouth was gleaming with saliva and his face was painted with Jared's seed and he was so fucking gorgeous.

Jensen lifted a hand to wipe his face but Jared made a wordless sound of protest and gestured weakly for Jensen to come up. Jensen crawled back up Jared's body, his movements a little awkward as he compensated for the red and painfully throbbing shaft between his thighs.

Jared pulled Jensen down to sprawl along his body, wrapping one leg around Jensen's hips and rutting up against him weakly. Jared swiped his tongue across Jensen's lips and face cleaning him off and then thrust his tongue into Jensen's mouth, kissing him fiercely and sharing the taste.

Jensen returned the kisses desperately, small whimpers of frustration seeping from his throat. Jensen worked against Jared thrusting and rubbing fruitlessly, without enough friction to get the job done. That was fine with Jared because he had other ideas.

"Come here," Jared whispered, grasping Jensen's ass with both hands and tugging him upward until Jensen was straddling his upper chest. Jared gripped his smooth, hot shaft and jacked it strongly a couple of times. "Fuck my mouth," Jared whispered.

To Jared's surprise, Jensen's body jerked hard and then bowed backwards, his head falling back, his mouth opening on a guttural cry. Riding too long on the razor edge of arousal had left Jensen defenseless against Jared's demand. Strong jets of come pulsed hotly onto Jared's chin and open mouth. The last of Jensen's release dribbled out weakly to pool in the hollow of Jared's throat. Jared stroked the smooth, hot shaft and licked at the pale stripe across his lips. He closed his eyes and savored the salty and slightly bitter taste. _'Next time,'_ he vowed silently.

Jared ran his hands up the smooth expanse of skin stretched above him. He paused to squeeze the mounds of Jensen's pecs lightly, thumbs rubbing in tiny circles over the pebbled nipples. Jensen twitched at the stimulation then slumped forward onto Jared's chest. He lay there limply; his damp face tucked into the curve Jared's shoulder, bathing Jared's throat with the hot, moist puffs of air from Jensen's still straining lungs.

Jared stroked his hands languidly up and down the sweat slicked length of Jensen's back, one hand sliding up to squeeze the back of his neck, fingertips ruffling the damp fringe of hair. Jared closed his eyes and let his mind drift pleasantly.

Jared was warm beneath Jensen's weight - and he didn't mind that weight at all - but before long he could feel Jensen's still moist skin begin to pebble in the slight chill of the room. That and the way Jensen's legs were still folded beneath him told Jared that Jensen couldn't have been comfortable.

Despite Jensen's grumbled protests, Jared gently tipped him sideways until he sprawled across the bed looking as debauched as Jared felt.

"Nap," Jensen sighed, flinging out a hand to gather one of the pillows from the top of the bed and snuggling in to it.

"How about we actually get into the bed," Jared suggested.

"In a minute," breathed Jensen, scooting onto his side and attempting to draw Jared behind him.

Jared resisted long enough to grope for his discarded tee shirt and give their bellies and chests a quick wipe. Tossing the soiled shirt to the floor he gave in to Jensen and inertia, only holding out long enough to flip the bottom of the bedcovers over them before collapsing on a corner of the pillow left by Jensen.

"Just for a minute," Jared murmured. "Get your strength back because I'm going to fuck you so hard you'll feel like my cock is in your throat."

Jared kept that picture in his mind as a mental _'la-la-la-la'_ to hold guilty thoughts at bay.

  
[ ](http://s41.photobucket.com/albums/e265/ixchel_55/?action=view&current=bellbookcandle.jpg)  


  
When Jared opened his eyes he realized three things: his feet were hanging over the side of the bed, out from beneath the twisted covers and they were freezing; the low slant of the late fall sun through the window told him that their nap had been considerably more than 'just a minute'; and his dick was stiff against the insistent press of Jensen's warm bare ass and ready for round two.

Oh yeah, and his bladder was about to burst.

Getting up meant flipping the bed spread all the way back off the end of the bed. If Jensen hadn't already been awake that would have done the trick.

"Where are you going?" Jensen grumbled. "You made a promise." He stretched languorously when Jared slid out of bed. The sight of that golden body toned and tight, cock already semi-erect, made Jared pause.

"Thirty seconds," Jared promised. "You might want to flip around and lie lengthwise." He nodded to the slatted headboard. "You're probably going to need the handhold. And I hope like hell you've got plenty of lube and condoms, because this could take awhile."

  
[ ](http://s41.photobucket.com/albums/e265/ixchel_55/?action=view&current=bellbookcandle.jpg)  


  
Even given the lethargy that usually overtook Jared - and apparently Jensen - after a fantastic orgasm, their vocally complaining stomachs wouldn't allow them to lapse back into sleep.

With a last kiss Jared jumped out of bed and made quick work of cleaning up in the bathroom before pulling on underwear and jeans and heading for the living room. While Jensen took another quick shower Jared ordered the pizza and pulled a couple of beers from the fridge. That done he spent a few minutes clearing a few small boxes off the couch and the coffee table. He thought about poking around and seeing if he could find a stereo system but that would have maybe been a little presumptuous.

Before Jared could succumb to the temptation to start opening the boxes marked 'books' Jensen was there, grinning slowly.

"You're dying to know what's in there, aren't you?" Jensen said, nodding at the boxes of books.

Jared grinned in return, totally unabashed. "Yeah, kinda."

"Go ahead. Whatever you take out just put on the shelves."

"What kind of order do you want them in?" Jared asked, pulling the packing tape off of the first box.

"It doesn't matter."

"I might as well put them in some kind of order as I'm emptying the boxes to save you some time later. Then you can just tweak it the way you want."

"No, really," Jensen said. "It doesn't matter."

Jared stared at Jensen in surprise. "How will you find anything?"

Jensen grinned. "It's just a couple of bookcases full. It's not like I'll be searching through the contents of the New York Public Library, after all."

Jensen laughed at Jared's expression, taking a sip of his beer. "That really bugs you, doesn't it? Well go ahead and arrange them any way you want, that'll be fine with me."

Jensen helped open the boxes and piled the books haphazardly on the floor in front of the bookcases while Jared scanned titles and began separating them.

A few minutes later Jensen unearthed his iPod and his docking station. Jared laughed when he saw it. "Please tell me that was a gift from someone," he said, pointing to the little round white pig with round black speakers for eyes and a slot for the iPod.

"My sister. Along with this," Jensen said with a smile, digging into the same box and pulling out a Magic 8 Ball.

"Yeah, that looks like something my sister would give me, too," Jared chuckled.

After a brief consultation they agreed on some classic rock to accompany the unpacking.

A few minutes later when the intercom buzzed Jared insisted on going down for the pizza and Jensen dug around for a roll of paper towels.

Tucking into hot pizza with a fresh cold beer after an awesome afternoon of sex was Jared's idea of nirvana.

Halfway through nirvana soured a little when Jensen's phone rang. It was Lauren. Jensen studied the ringing phone for a moment before sending the call to voice mail. Jensen shrugged. "I'm going to have to talk to her sooner rather than later, but not right now. She's going out to the Hamptons for the weekend so I'll talk to her on Monday."

Jensen's careless attitude about Lauren both surprised and pleased Jared.

"I wasn't sure how serious you were about her," Jared ventured cautiously.

Jensen looked surprised. "Well if I'd been serious about her I wouldn't have spent the last few hours with you the way I did." His tone was a little testy.

"No, of course not," Jared agreed quickly. "It's just that last night she seemed a little…possessive."

Jensen sighed. "I know. I don't know where she got the idea that we're a 'couple' from but not from me. I thought a lot about that before I accepted the transfer here from Chicago. I even talked to Mr. Cohan about it. I didn't want him thinking that he was offering me the promotion under some kind of false pretext. Thankfully he said it never crossed his mind."

Jared felt relief but also a heavier sense of guilt about the spell. If he'd just waited - a day, maybe two - he'd have seen there was no reason for him to interfere the way he had. He needed to break the spell and come clean about the whole mess.

When the phone rang again this time it was an unknown number and a 605 area code.

Jensen shrugged and answered the call. "Hello? Yes this is Jensen Ackles. Who? Jim Beaver? This is Jim Beaver?"

Jensen's tone of pure blatant skepticism made him snort the mouthful of beer halfway up his nose. He hacked and coughed and when he waved a hand frantically in Jensen's face Jensen frowned and put the man on hold.

"What?" Jensen asked, concerned.

"It is!" Jared blurted.

"It is what?" Jensen asked, perplexed.

"Jim Beaver! It's really Jim Beaver! I gave him your number." Jared made shooing motions back to the phone.

Jensen stared at Jared in surprise until Jared motioned to the phone again.

Jensen picked up the call again. "Mr. Beaver? Sorry, Jared apparently forgot to mention your visit and I wasn't expecting your call. What can I do for you?"

Jared ate another slice of pizza without bothering to disguise that the fact that he was blatantly eavesdropping. Since Jensen didn't start his new job for another week he arranged to meet Beaver for lunch on Monday.

Jensen hung up then stared at Jared for a moment. "When the hell did you have the time to meet Jim Beaver?"

Jared shrugged. "He was waiting downstairs in the vestibule when I came down from waking up Katie. We talked a bit, he said he was in town for a talk with his publisher and he sounded none too happy about it. I remembered what you'd said about him last night and his strained relationship with Lehne. One thing led to another, he asked if I knew anyone, you called and I got your phone number and I passed it along. I hope you don't mind."

"Of course I don't mind," Jensen said. "But a little heads up so I didn't sound like a total spaz on the phone would have been nice."

"Yeah, sorry about that," Jared said sheepishly. "I was going to but then you came out of the bathroom and I got a little distracted."

Jensen's smile was slow and more than a little suggestive. "You think I could manage to distract you a little more?"

Jared looked thoughtful then reached to the end of the table and picked up the Magic 8 Ball. He flipped it over. " _'Signs point to yes'_ ," he said seriously.

"Does it really say that?" Jensen laughed.

"Who cares," Jared said, standing and pulling Jensen to his feet. "It's the only advice I'm taking."

  
[ ](http://s41.photobucket.com/albums/e265/ixchel_55/?action=view&current=bellbookcandle.jpg)  


  
The rest of the weekend went perfectly. Katie only called Jared down with one small disaster on Saturday. While they were out of bed and completely dressed for a change Jared showed Jensen the bodega down the street where they picked up some basic supplies and more beer. Then there was the deli around the corner, the pizzeria that had delivered Friday night and the great Thai place two blocks down. All delivered. And they made use of them all.

By the time Sunday night rolled around they had almost all of Jensen's boxes unpacked and they'd each managed to distract the other more than a few times.

Jared rolled off of Jensen and lay beside him limp and panting. After a few moments, when he felt he'd regained sufficient control of his arms, he carefully rolled the condom off his equally flaccid cock, tied it off and disposed of it in the trashcan on his side of the bed.

_His side of the bed._

They'd known one another for three full days and change and he already thought of this as 'his side of the bed'. This whole thing scared the shit out of him.

It scared him how fast this was all moving.

It scared him that what he felt was so far past the merely physical. He'd been with Justin for nearly three years in college before Lauren and Justin's own fears came between them and he hadn't felt this much.

It scared him that he alone might be feeling this level of intensity. He saw signs practically every minute of every day that told him he wasn't alone. Jensen had even jokingly said that maybe they needed to put a cat flap in his back door for Phouka to save them the trouble of constantly letting him in and out.

It scared the shit out of him how Jensen was going to react when he finally found out the truth. And Jensen would find out the truth because Jared had to tell him. He couldn't live with himself if he didn't. It scared him that it would kill what Jensen was feeling but it scared him even more that he'd find out that what Jensen was feeling wasn't really his but something that Jared had inadvertently planted. Theoretically he knew that wasn't possible, but theory meant absolutely nothing when he contemplated the near future.

"I can feel you burning brain cells," Jensen said softly. Jensen turned on his side stroked his hand down the broad plain of Jared's chest. "Getting restless for your own bed?"

Jared caught Jensen's hand and held it firmly against his skin. "No," he said. "Not at all. Are you ready to have your bed back to yourself?"

"No," Jensen said simply. He clicked off the light on his bedside table and lay back down facing Jared who rolled onto his side too.

They lay in the dark quiet for several minutes. Jared's eyes slowly adapted to the weak light that made it through the bedroom blinds from the alley. He could see the glitter of Jensen's eyes watching him.

"Tell me I'm not alone in what I'm feeling," Jensen suddenly whispered.

"You're not," Jared whispered back.

Jensen released a shaky breath. "I don't know whether that reassures me or scares me," he said. "I mean, are we crazy? I've never felt this way about anyone before. I know next to nothing about you and yet I feel as though I've known you my whole life. That's crazy, right?"

"Pretty crazy," Jared laughed shakily. "Do you think we should slow things down?"

"I don't want to. I don't think I can," Jensen admitted. "I'm not suggesting you move in here or anything…yet, but I don't think I can revert to being just 'friends', either."

Jared laughed. "We can't 'revert' to something we just jumped right over."

Jensen released a sigh that sounded an awful lot like relief. "Well that's settled then. We just continue on as before and see where it takes us. OK?"

"Signs point to yes," Jared said softly.

Jensen pushed up on one elbow and kissed Jared. It was a soft kiss and strangely tentative considering how they'd spent the last hour. When Jensen tried to pull back Jared cupped his head in both hands and deepened the kiss.

Neither of them was much for cuddling but when Jensen turned on his other side Jared spooned up behind him and Jensen settled back against him.

Jared squeezed his eyes shut and struggled to maintain even breathing. Shit, he had to find a way to tell Jensen the truth and somehow - fantastic as it seemed - not lose him.

  
[ ](http://s41.photobucket.com/albums/e265/ixchel_55/?action=view&current=bellbookcandle.jpg)  


  
Jensen came home Monday evening in a triumphant mood.

"There's good news and there's…well, not bad news but less thrilling news," Jensen said during dinner at Jared's place.

"Hopefully the good news has something to do with Jim Beaver's next book," Jared said.

"Exactly! Jim and I had a great lunch just chatting and then a long talk after. He's decided not to extend his contract with Lehne Publishing. He's going to give me and Richings & Cohan a try. He said he'll have a formal prospectus for me in a couple of days. Get this, he's writing a book on witches and witchcraft right here in New York City. Pretty wild, huh?"

To say that Jared was stunned was an understatement. The witch community in New York was one of the largest in the country but they were pretty far underground.

"…he'll reveal his source."

Jared's mind had wandered but snapped back to focus on Jensen's last comment. "What did you say?"

"About what?" Jensen asked.

"That last bit about a source?"

"Oh! I was just speculating whether Jim will reveal his source in the book."

"He has a source already?" Jared asked, surprised.

"I guess he got interested in the subject on one of his business trips here. He said he met a woman while he was poking around in some herb shop and she apparently gave him enough information to convince him to poke around a little more. He said she was more than willing to share what she knew," Jensen said. "Hey, you know anything about the witchy underground scene of New York?"

"Why would I know anything?" Jared asked quickly.

Jensen looked surprised at Jared's abrupt question. "Uh, just because of the shop. You know, the kinds of things you sell. Plus you said when it was your aunt's business she was into the whole 'New Age' thing. That's all."

"Sorry," Jared said sheepishly. "Yeah, there was a whole different clientele when my aunt was alive. It took me a while to change the reputation of the store enough to start attracting serious collectors of anthropological artifacts. But hey, what's the not so terrific news?" Jared asked quickly to change to subject even though his mind was still busy mulling over the identity of Jim Beaver's secret informant. He had a pretty good idea who this mysterious herb shop woman was but he was going to ask Ash to snoop around a little. Ash was much more likely to fly under the radar than he was.

But once more Jensen's next statement brought Jared's wandering mind back to the conversation.

"After my lunch with Jim I swung by the offices and caught Lauren as she was leaving."

"Yeah," Jared asked warily.

"We went for a drink and I told her that we wouldn't be seeing each other anymore - not the way we had been. I told her about us." Jensen blew out a heavy breath. "To say that she didn't take it well would be an understatement. She said you were just getting back at her because of some guy that preferred her over you back in college."

Jensen looked way too nonchalant during that last statement and it made Jared laugh.

"Well that's partly true," Jared said in amusement. "Justin did dump me for Lauren. She kept him for approximately three weeks before she sent him on his way. It did piss me off at the time but I've come to realize that she did us a favor. I doubt if I would have stayed with Justin much longer. He was such a closet case. He comes from old money and he was terrified that his grandmother would crash his inheritance if she ever found out he was gay. So Lauren just sped up the inevitable. But until I saw her in the Zodiac the other night I hadn't thought of her or Justin in years."

Jensen looked subtly relieved.

"Is this thing with Lauren going to make trouble at work?" Jared asked curiously, gathering the dinner dishes and dumping them in the sink to soak for tomorrow.

"Not really," Jensen said, pressing himself to Jared's back. "Like I said before, I made damn sure I didn’t get this promotion because of Lauren before I took it. The most she can do is make things uncomfortable for a while." Jensen slid his hands around to Jared's belt buckle. He flipped it open then slid his hand under the waistband. "Enough about past regrets. Wanna fool around?"

Jensen bit lightly at the side of Jared's neck. Jared rumbled contentedly and tilted his head to allow Jensen easier access. "Mmmm, yeah," Jared said, reaching back to pull Jensen's hips in closer to him.

Jared turned around then pivoted Jensen and pinned him to the counter, rutting up against him. Several breathless moments later Jared pulled his lips from Jensen's with a rich, moist sound.

"Why don't we use that big, comfy bed of yours," Jared said.

Jensen threw his head back with an exasperated sigh. "The truth comes out," he said. "You want me for my bed."

Jared leered. "I want you for the way you look spread out on that bed. So why don't you go on up. I'll take care of His Highness," Jared titled his head to where Phouka sat on the counter, tail curled primly around his front paws, observing them with unblinking eyes, "lock everything up and meet you up there."

"Sounds good to me," Jensen agreed. "Don't be too long or I'll start without you."

"As long as you don't finish without me and I get to watch, I'm good with that," Jared said with a smile.

Jensen slid past Jared with a grin. "Maybe I'll save you the trouble of opening me up this time," Jensen said as he left by the back door.

Jared's cock stirred at the thought of walking in on Jensen, ass in the air, glistening with lube and full of his own fingers. That mental picture was enough to speed up his routine. In just minutes Phouka was fed, the alarm set and Jared was taking the stairs two at a time.

In the back of his mind he made a mental note to call Ash in the morning and ask him to snoop around.

  
[ ](http://s41.photobucket.com/albums/e265/ixchel_55/?action=view&current=bellbookcandle.jpg)  


  
A couple of days later Jared's suspicions were confirmed. Loretta Devine was Jim Beaver's confidential informant. Although just how 'confidential' she was when she was smugly vocal about the relationship was a little puzzling.

Jared had considered talking to Loretta about the advisability of talking to Jim but she and Jared weren't exactly on the best of terms. Before Jared's arrival in New York, Loretta Devine was the high maven of the community. Loretta's magic was only medium in strength so she'd compensated by becoming a master at potions. Envy ate at her though and she'd always resented the fact that Jared had attracted a strong familiar; and that even without Phouka, Jared's own personal magic was still quite powerful. More powerful than she could ever hope to achieve even with the aid of her potions.

Jared decided that the best he could do was to wait and see how things developed and hope he didn't have to step in to help maintain the anonymity of the witching community of New York. A rather hypocritical thought considering the fact that Jared had decided it was time to reveal his true self to Jensen.

That was going to be hard enough without the whole 'I put a spell on you' thing that Jared was going to have to come clean about too; a spell for Jared's benefit. Though Jared would like to believe - and actually did - that it was to Jensen's benefit, too.  


  
[ ](http://s41.photobucket.com/albums/e265/ixchel_55/?action=view&current=black_catssmaller.jpg)  


  
**Act III**  


"Jensen, did you hear what I said?"

"Hmm?" Jensen didn't look up from Jim Beaver's literary prospectus.

"Jensen, I need you to stop reading and listen to me. Please." Jared must have injected the right amount of urgency into his plea because Jensen finally looked up from the computer screen.

"I'm sorry. I guess I just got a little too wrapped up in this. It's actually pretty fascinating. What were you saying?"

Jared paced a couple of steps in agitation and then back again. This was even harder than he'd anticipated, and not being able to get it all out in the first try just made it that much more difficult.

Jared took a deep breath. "I'm trying to tell you that I'm…one of those people," he said, nodding at the computer in Jensen's lap.

"One of what people?" Jensen asked, perplexed.

"One of the people that Jim Beaver is going to be writing about."

Jensen frowned. "What?"

Jared paused, trying to come up with something that sounded plausible and not totally insane. For some reason having this conversation with Katie last year hadn't been nearly as difficult. But then Jared didn't have as much riding on the outcome then as he did with Jensen now.

Jared drew another deep, steadying breath. "I'm a witch," he said simply. "A witch like Jim will be writing about."

Jensen continued to stare at Jared in confusion. "What?"

The breath that Jared had been holding in in trepidation released slowly with a barely audible whine of frustration. "I said I'm a witch…" he repeated slowly.

"No, I got that part," Jensen interrupted with a frown. "I'm just not sure what you mean. Are you saying you're Wiccan?"

"No, not Wiccan," Jared said. "Wicca is a New Age religion less than 200 years old. What I am is a hereditary witch, something that goes back for generations and has nothing to do with, and is in fact, completely outside of religion. It's an inherent ability that I was born with, like both of my parents and most our ancestors before them, like my brother and sister, like Ash."

Jared waited while Jensen seemed to try and process that.

"Like **Bewitched**?" Jensen asked blankly.

Jared sighed. At least Jensen hadn't called him a nutjob right away. " **Bewitched** was a comedy-fantasy. There's no nose twitching, no popping instantly in and out of rooms, nothing like that. If pressed for a modern-day visual I'd say more like **Practical Magic**. Where the sisters are hereditary witches with varying degrees of power and where it takes practice to create spells?"

"Wouldn't that make you a warlock?" Jensen asked faintly.

Jared could see that the question was just a diversionary tactic to give Jensen time to think. But he took the question at face value to give Jensen - hell, to give both of them - the time they needed.

" **Warlock** is a 20 year old, mildly entertaining but totally hokey movie," Jared said. "Or a Neopagan wannabe waving around an athame and using any excuse to wander around 'sky-clad'. Nor am I a Harry Potter type wizard - although the ability is hereditary like that - or a World of Warcraft, frost bolt hurtling mage," he continued. "I'm a witch."

Jensen closed his laptop and set it aside on the coffee table. He gestured to the couch beside him and waited for Jared to take a seat.

"You understand how…" Jensen scratched the back of his neck, a sure sign of his discomfort, while he seemed to be searching for the right word.

"Buckets of crazy? Totally fruit-loops? Bat-shit insane?" Jared supplied.

Jensen laughed uneasily. "Well, I was going to say 'unbelievable'."

"I know," Jared said. "I can prove it to you if you keep an open mind."

"Okay," Jensen said slowly. "Show me what you've got."

Jared could tell that Jensen was working hard to erase the skepticism from his voice and he appreciated the effort.

"This is one of Ash's favorite tricks at the moment. It's really one for an advanced child, but Ash isn't a very strong witch. He never has been and never will be. He just doesn't have the ability."

Jared nodded at the lamp sitting on the end-table by the chair across the table. Jared kept his hands in plain sight on his knees but suddenly the light flicked on.

Jensen jerked in surprise. "What…?"

Then the light went off, then on then off then began blinking in pattern: quick quick quick - slow slow slow - quick quick quick, classic SOS.

Jensen stared at Jared, wide-eyed and slack jawed.

Jared looked over at the entertainment system on the opposite wall. This time, with a small gesture of his raised hand and a few silent words, the radio blared to life and began racing up and down the frequencies, finally settling on the alternative rock station that Jensen preferred. With another tiny gesture the volume lowered to background noise.

Jensen was stunned. He turned from the radio to stare at Jared, his mouth working soundlessly. "H-how…?" he finally stuttered.

"I have a feeling that sometime in the future scientists are going to find that it's something like a recessive gene that allows for the ability to manipulate natural elements - among other things. That," Jared nodded back toward the radio, "was manipulation of electricity. Different witches have different talents in varying degrees of strength. I happen to be pretty strong. So are my parents and both my brother and sister."

"But not Ash?" Jensen asked faintly.

"No." Jared said. "It's possible it's because his father is a 'normal'. But there are witches with only one witch parent who are strong and witches with parents who are both witches who aren't. Some witches use potions to concentrate energy and others use - well, for lack of a less dramatic term - a familiar. Phouka," Jared nodded at the black cat lazing regally on the armchair across the coffee table, "helps me channel thought and energy for larger spells."

Jensen stared at Phouka who blinked back sleepily in total unconcern for his turmoil "'Normal'?" he asked, still obviously struggling with the revelation.

"One of the terms for non-witches that we use, as in what is the 'norm' for the majority of the human population. Some witches use the term 'mundanes' but it's actually considered impolite and rather derogatory. Now, in the Age of Harry Potter, a lot of the younger generation refers to non-witches as muggles."

Jensen still looked gob-smacked but he seemed to be processing the information.

"Wait!" Jensen said suddenly as though suddenly putting two and two together and Jared tensed in dread. "That first night - on Halloween - the strange light I saw in here from the street? Was that a…a spell or something?"

Jared relaxed slightly. "Yeah. Ash gave me an old potion he found. I could tell what is was and Katie and Ash wanted to see it in action."

"Well what was it?" Jensen asked, apparently fascinated now that he was on board with the idea.

"It's an old summoning spell," Jared said. "A pretty weak one, but it worked."

"Yeah? Who'd you summon?"

Jared looked sheepish for a moment then reached over and plucked Jim Beaver's book from the table. He held it up so Jensen could see the cover and then flipped it around to show him the hole where the picture used to be.

Jensen frowned. "You compelled Jim to come to you?"

"No," Jared said calmly. "The potion's not that strong. I couldn't have compelled anyone to do anything with it. If Jim hadn't wanted to come to New York - or as it turned out already be in New York - the spell wouldn't have made him. All it did was plant a little suggestion in his subconscious. Same thing with actually coming to the shop, all it did was provided a little nudge to possibly go one way over another. That's all."

"You said 'the potion' wasn't strong enough to compel Jim here, but are you strong enough to do it another way?"

Jared could feel the tension that had begun to ebb at Jensen's relatively easy acceptance of his nature begin to crawl back up his spine and settle across his shoulders like a weight.

"Yes," Jared said simply. "I am strong enough and I know that because when I was a snotty, rebellious young teen going through puberty and a lot of hormone surges I did some pretty shitty, self-serving things. But not for years and let me qualify that because if someone is truly opposed to something no one - to my knowledge, no matter how powerful - can compel them to do it against their will. What I can do is work with what's already present and push that to the forefront of someone's mind and hold it there for them to obsess over." Jensen was visibly struggling with what Jared was telling him. "I can't make an honest person steal or cheat; I can't make a non-violent person commit murder or even assault; but I could make a sixteen year bully at school give me a blow job because that's what he really wanted to do, he was just scared and embarrassed to admit it. Years later I heard that Billy Jenkins came out of the closet and that had nothing to do with me."

Jensen was quiet for a moment but Jared could see his eyes tracking back and forth between the book still in Jared's hands and Jensen's laptop sitting on the table.

"Did you…?"

Jared cut Jensen off before he couldn't get the words out. "No." Jared's voice was firm. "The only magic I used on Jim was that one weak summoning spell. The next day when he showed up in the shop I just used good old fashioned deduction and reasoning. Jim told me he was in New York to see his publisher. The night before you had said that Jim was dissatisfied with Lehne Publishing and I mentioned that I knew a publisher. _He's_ the one who asked me for your phone number."

Jared waited for Jensen to digest this piece of intel and to see if he'd follow it back around. Jared didn't have to wait long.

"You said Jim was waiting for you in the vestibule before you even opened the store," Jensen said slowly.

"That's right."

"You didn't have my phone number then."

"No," Jared said.

"You compelled…whatever," Jensen waved away Jared's beginning protest at the wording, "me to call you, didn't you?"

"Yes," Jared admitted. "I did. I needed your phone number for Jim and I was afraid if I took the time to come up and get it that Jim would lose patience and take off."

"I see," Jensen said. "Is that the only time you've used your magic on me?" His voice was soft and flat.

Jared took a deep breath and swallowed tightly. He could see on Jensen's face that he knew the answer before Jared could get it out. When Jared opened his mouth Jensen held up his hand to halt the words. Clenching his hand into a fist Jensen stood then held up one finger in front of his mouth signaling Jared to give him a minute.

Jensen paced away a few feet then changed directions and made for Jared's entertainment center where he flipped off the radio. With his back still turned to Jared, Jensen crossed his arms tightly and hunched up his shoulders before twisting his neck and visibly letting his arms relax back down to his sides. Jensen turned, face blank, and walked back to Jared, but he didn't rejoin him on the couch.

Jared didn't stand up, relinquishing the high ground to Jensen.

Jensen began to cross his arms again but visibly forced them down and clenched his fists instead. His face was tight and blank. "What did you do," he said, his voice flat.

Jared took a steadying breath although he personally thought there wasn't enough air in the room to bolster him sufficiently for this. "I liked you so much from the moment I met you," he began. "I've never felt such a strong attraction to anyone, let alone so quickly; and I'm pretty sure you felt the same way about me." Jared didn't wait for a response. "That first morning at breakfast, I asked you how you and Lauren met. As you told me the story I got…angry."

"Jared, what does this have to do with you using your magic - power - whatever on me?"

"Bear with me, please," Jared pleaded. "I'm not telling you this to excuse my actions, just to give you the whole picture."

Jared waited several agonizingly long moments, wiping his sweaty palms on his jean clad thighs. At Jensen's tight nod he continued. "I'd heard that same story so many times before, hell, I experienced it in college, so did Katie. Lauren can't stand not having the attention she thinks she deserves. Over and over again she'll find the weakness between two people and exploit it until the relationship implodes. You do realize now that that's what she did with you and Matt, right?"

Jared didn't wait for Jensen's reply but pushed on. "I swore I wasn't going to do anything but wait for you to come to your senses about her but something just tripped in me and I couldn't stand it any longer. We were sitting here on the couch, remember?" Jared could see Jensen's mind searching out the memory.

Jensen's became distant as he mused. "You were humming," he said slowly. "Phouka was in your lap, you were both - staring at me - and you were humming."

"I was casting a spell, channeling it through Phouka," Jared admitted.

Jensen went pale, the tiny freckles across his nose and cheeks in high relief and the muscles in his jaw were jumping and popping with tension. "Did you make me fall in love with you?" he asked with a hurt intensity that was so much more devastating than a screaming accusation.

"No!" Jared protested. "There's no such thing as a love spell. Besides, I told you no one can compel another person to feel or do something that isn't a part of them. All I did was take what you were already feeling for me, what you were repressing because of your involvement with Lauren and urge it to the surface."

"So you didn't compel me or mesmerize me," Jensen said through clenched teeth, "You just used my own emotions against me. You did exactly what Lauren did."

"Yes," Jared whispered miserably.

Jensen glared at Jared for a moment longer then without another word he scooped up his laptop and stalked toward the backdoor.

"Jensen wait!" Jared called. "Talk to me!"

The echo of the slamming door was his only reply.

Phouka observed Jared through sleepy, half-closed eyes from the big armchair, the tip of his tail flicking lazily.

  
[ ](http://s41.photobucket.com/albums/e265/ixchel_55/?action=view&current=bellbookcandle.jpg)  


  
Jared was sitting on the floor of the shop against the wall facing the door. He'd just taken a sloppy drink from the bottle beside him when the outside door opened and Jensen entered the vestibule. Jared sat shocked while Jensen fumbled with the key to the stairway door, very deliberately not looking into **  
_Bell Book and Candle_   
**. As liberally soused as Jared was after nearly 12 hours of drinking and next to no sleep, it took him a bit longer than he would have liked to pull himself to his feet. By the time he had, Jensen had unlocked the inside door and gone upstairs.

Jared stood weaving. He was trying to think but his mind just kept going round and round like a hamster in a wheel, going nowhere pretty damn fast. Jared staggered back into his apartment and threw handfuls of water on his face from the kitchen sink in an attempt to sober up a little. When stronger measures were needed he turned the faucet on full cold and stuck his entire head under it.

Gasping in shock, Jared threw his head back spraying water across almost the entire width of the apartment. He slicked his hair back out of his eyes and rubbed his face briskly. Jared doubted that he was actually any more sober, but at least he was a very alert drunk.

Jared was back up front in time to hear Jensen trotting down the stairs. He was trying to get his hands and eyes to co-ordinate enough to get the door unlocked when Jensen appeared. Jared slapped his hand against the door frame in frustration. Jensen looked at him, startled, mouth dropping open in a shocked O before his lips pinched back together again.

"Jensen!" Jared yelled, struggling once more with the door. "Jensen wait!"

But he got the door open too late, Jensen was already gone.

Jared lurched to the front window to see Jensen walk up to a taxi idling in the street. The driver popped open the trunk so that Jensen could toss in the two bags he was carrying.

Desperate, Jared looked wildly about for a solution and saw Phouka lying in a pool of weak fall sunlight among the dusty displays in the front window. Without pausing to think Jared scooped up the disgruntled cat and began humming a discordant and hoarse tune. Phouka grumbled in discontent but Jared continued to push his thoughts and desires through his erstwhile companion.

Over the top of the cat's head Jared could see Jensen slam the trunk closed and walk toward the vehicle's back door. Jared's tune became more frenetic and Jensen came to a standstill, a puzzled expression on his face.

Jensen turned and walked back to the front door. When he walked into **_Bell Book and Candle_** Jensen stopped abruptly and stared in shock at Jared.

"Jensen?" Jared said pleadingly.

Quickly Jensen's shock turned into anger and without a word he turned around and stormed back out, the glass door vibrating with the force of the slam.

With drunken intensity Jared doubled his efforts and had Jensen back moments later.

"Fuck!" Jensen yelled and slammed out again.

Jared re-doubled the spell, determinedly holding on to a squirming Phouka.

The third time Jensen was forced back into the shop he rounded on Jared. "Godamnit Jared! Stop! It's over. Fuck, it was never real to begin with! Just stop, for God's sake! For _my_ sake. Please!"

Phouka had apparently had enough, too. With a loud _yeowl!_ he twisted in Jared's arms, marking them with bloody furrows in the process.

Phouka hit the ground and made a beeline past a shocked Jensen for the open door and disappeared out into the street.

Jensen turned back to Jared, his face anguished. "Just please…leave me alone." It was whispered with such unhappiness that Jared felt his something deep in him coil tight, hiding in shared misery.

  
[ ](http://s41.photobucket.com/albums/e265/ixchel_55/?action=view&current=bellbookcandle.jpg)  


  
Jared sobered up - for the most part - and tried to reach Jensen. He called Jensen's cell but only got a _'Your call cannot be connected'_ recording. He tried Jensen's new office but it seemed that everyone who might possibly answer any phone anywhere in the building had been told not to put his call through.

At least the nightmare thought of Lauren answering one of his phones never came true.

When he showed up at the offices security turned him away. When he became rather insistent they escorted him from the building. Jared discovered that, though he hadn't asked them to intervene, Katie and Ash had been turned away, also.

Jared could have used magic to get to Jensen. Even though Phouka had apparently defected for good and began sleeping and eating at Katie and Ash's, Jared could still have created a spell powerful enough to overcome Jensen's objections and those of anyone who stood between them, but he refused to subject Jensen to that.

Late in the week Ash came to Jared with the gossip that apparently Jensen had confided his dilemma to Jim Beaver and Jim had introduced Jensen to Loretta Devine. Loretta was gloating to all who'd listen that she'd been asked to break one of Jared's spells. Jared could have blocked her counter magic easily but his pride, as a witch and as a man, tattered though it was, wouldn't let him hold onto Jensen that way.

Later that night Jared felt the weakened link that still connected him to Jensen dissolve.

That's when Jared truly crawled into a bottle and took up residence.

  
[ ](http://s41.photobucket.com/albums/e265/ixchel_55/?action=view&current=bellbookcandle.jpg)  


  
Katie had begun haunting Jared's apartment, haranguing him to get out and get some air; to go eat somewhere - anything. She tried sympathy, pizza and fudge brownie ice cream; she tried sarcasm and bullying; she tried threatening to call his mother, but none of her ploys worked. The only thing Jared was interested in was drinking away the memory of Jensen's distraught face the last time he had seen it and the aching void that had been left in Jared's soul when Jensen left. Sometimes it even worked.

Next Katie tried cutting off his supply of booze by threatening the liquor store owner with extreme bodily harm and a lawsuit that would leave his children's children impoverished if he delivered to Jared again. Jared just found liquor stores further away that delivered. There were a lot of liquor stores in New York.

Finally Jared resorted to trying to compel Katie and Ash to stay away.

It didn't work.

Phouka had taken up permanent residence upstairs and Jared was constantly drunk so the spell had no power. It simply pissed Katie off and made her increase her efforts to get through to Jared.

Her tactics didn't work, either.

  
[ ](http://s41.photobucket.com/albums/e265/ixchel_55/?action=view&current=bellbookcandle.jpg)  


  
Jared was awakened by knocking and then pounding and then pounding and yelling at the shop door.

Déjà vu all over again.

Jared sat up on the couch where he'd passed out again and rubbed a hand over aching, bleary eyes. The only attention he paid to the person at the front door was to wish them a speedy departure so the pounding would quit echoing through his head.

Jared picked up a bottle from the floor to take a drink only to discover it sadly empty. He placed it on the coffee table and systematically checked the others on the table and floor. Only air, not even a golden dribble left in the bottoms.

Time for another delivery.

When his stomach gurgled unhappily he thought about finding something to throw in it to shut it up and maybe cushion the forthcoming tequila. That is as soon as he found his phone and called for that delivery.

"Have to have priorities," he mumbled to himself.

He patted his pockets for his phone and he hoped Katie hadn't cancelled his current suppliers. It was a bitch sobering up enough to reprogram the speed dial on his phone every time she did that.

The phone wasn't in his pockets which was strange. Ever since he set his phone down somewhere and forgot it and had to get practically sober to find it, he was never without it. In a fit of drunken genius he'd duct taped the phone to the inside of his left forearm but he kept drunk dialing people. Then he glued a rope around the top above the keyboard and tied the other end to his belt loop.

Finding the rope still tied to his pants, Jared followed it down into the couch cushions but the phone still proved elusive. In his dedicated search mode he didn't hear the key in the back door or the low, offended _yeowl!_.

He was on his hands and knees, ass high in the air, right arm thrust up to the shoulder under couch cushions when Jared finally found the phone. Grasping it tightly he thrust it high in the air in triumph. "Aha!"

That's when he saw Jensen standing a few feet away with a black wire mesh wastebasket in his arms. It had a piece of cardboard fastened to the top with packing tape and golden glowing eyes stared at Jared from the diamond shaped openings.

_"Mraowwww."_

That wastebasket sounded royally pissed.

"Why didn't you answer your door?" Jensen asked irately. "And why the hell are you closed in the middle of the week?"

Jared rocked back in surprise and promptly slid to the floor with a thump. This wasn't the first time he hallucinated Jensen, but Jensen had never spoken to him before. And he'd never appeared with Phouka in a wastebasket.

"Jensen?"

"Oh shit, are you drunk again?" Jensen asked in dismay.

"Pfft! No!" Jared scoffed loudly. "I'm _still_ drunk."

Jensen stared at Jared for a long moment before whispering, "Fuck." His expression hardened again. "Is this some new trick to get me to come back?" Jensen asked, thrusting the wastebasket forward and jarring another low _mraowwww!_ from within.

Jared's hands drifted up toward the basket and his old friend before he could think about it.

"I found your damn cat doing a high-wire act on the seventh floor window ledge of my hotel room. How the hell did you get him up there?"

Jared snatched his unruly hands back and stuffed them beneath his thighs. He'd hallucinated Phouka before too but even phantom Phouka hadn't wanted Jared.

He stuck his lower lip out truculently and shook his head, his entire body rocking back and forth with the movement. "Not my cat," Jared said. "He doesn't want to be my cat anymore. He stays with Katie now."

Jensen stared at Jared in consternation. "What do you mean 'he doesn't want to be your cat'?"

Jared knew that trying to reason with his hallucinations only brought more frustration and heartache so he pushed himself unsteadily to his feet and wandered over toward the kitchen. The forgotten cell phone, dangling from the cord at his waist, was banging against his knee. At the breakfast bar he began methodically checking the plethora of bottles that littered the surface.

Yep, still empty.

Remembering that another delivery was only a speed dial away - well, talking to make the order was sometimes unexpectedly problematic - Jared began groping for the rope at his waist and reeled in the phone.

"Jared?"

Jared stared at the phone in surprise. How did the liquor store know it was him? Had he called this one enough to be on caller ID? He didn't think he'd even pushed the button yet. Jared shrugged philosophically. These little gaps seemed to be appearing more and more the last couple of days. He'd learned it was best to just go with the flow.

"Hello?" Jared said into the back of the phone.

"Jared?" _mraowwww_ "What the hell, man?"

A hand grabbed his arm and spun Jared around. Jensen looked puzzled and worried. That's when Jared finally bought a clue that maybe this wasn't all just another drunken hallucination. Fantasy Jensen had looked, by turns, pissed and irate, soothing and conciliatory or ravenously amorous, but never concerned. And Jared had never been able to feel his touch no matter how much he had wanted to.

Jared reached out a tentative hand and touched the arm wrapped around the wastebasket. _mraowwww_ It felt solid and real.

"Jensen?" he whispered. "You're really here?"

"Yeah," Jensen said warily, He didn’t pull his arm away. "Jared, are you alright?"

"I…yeah, I think I'm a little confused."

"You and me both," Jensen said, looking around himself at the wreckage of his normally well-ordered apartment. "What the hell happened to you?"

"I…I, uh," Jared ran a shaking hand over his unshaven face then pushed back oily, too long hair. "Just a sec."

Jared turned toward the kitchen sink then whirled back around, nearly falling over when the movement unbalanced him. "You're not going anywhere? You'll stay there…and talk to me?"

Jensen nodded slowly, his eyes taking in Jared's disheveled appearance. Several days ago Jared had begun avoiding his own reflection. He knew he had to look a lot worse now. "I'll stay until we can talk," Jensen told him.

Jared scooped dirty dishes from the kitchen sink and piled them haphazardly onto the already overflowing counter, barely registering the dislodged empty bottle that fell off and rolled toward Jensen. Turning on the cold faucet he thrust his head under and rubbed at it vigorously. It hadn't helped him last time but hopefully it would help dilute a little of the tequila currently pickling his brain.

Resurfacing, Jared cast about for a dish towel. When he couldn't find one he pulled up his filthy tee shirt and used it to scrub his face mostly dry then futilely smoothed it back down.

Turning back to Jensen he caught the look of consternation that the other man couldn't hide.

"You'll listen to me?" Jared asked hopefully.

"Jared…I…" Jensen gestured to the mess around them and at Jared, his expression was one of pure dismay.

Self-conscious for the first time in days, Jared nervously slicked down his wet, oily hair. He knew he looked pathetic but he couldn't seem to bring up the wherewithal to care much until now.

"Do you have coffee?" Jensen asked finally.

"Yeah!" Jared said enthusiastically, finally glad to have a direction. "I've still got your Jamaican here somewhere."

He pawed through the contents of the nearly empty refrigerator until he found what he was looking for. Turning eagerly back he began searching through the piles on the counter for the coffee maker.

"Jared."

Jared froze at the light touch on his back.

"I'll make the coffee," Jensen said softly. "You go take a shower and get cleaned up."

Jared clutched the bag of coffee protectively. "But…"

"Jared," Jensen said patiently, "Go take a shower. You'll feel - and smell - a lot better and I **promise** I'll be here when you get back."

Jared released the coffee. He was reluctant to leave Jensen alone for fear he'd disappear when Jared's back was turned. But Jensen had promised, and Jensen didn't make promises lightly.

"Okay," Jared agreed.

Turning toward his bedroom Jared caught sight of golden eyes staring at him from the prison of black diamond mesh atop the breakfast bar. Slowly he stepped up and carefully peeled off the tape that held Phouka's prison door shut. Within seconds the cat was out of the wastebasket and on the floor. Then he was just a black streak out the cat flap in the back door.

Jared looked sadly at Jensen's shocked face then moved resolutely to the bathroom.

Quickly peeling out of his grimy clothes, Jared flipped on the shower and stepped in before it had a chance to warm up. Gasping and shivering he ducked fully under the pounding stream and rode out the chill. After the water warmed he shampooed his hair three times before it felt clean, then scrubbed his body free of the accumulated days of sweat, dirt and secreted alcohol.

Stepping out of the shower Jared listened anxiously for movement in the outer room. He didn't hear anything but he smelled the reassuring scent of brewing coffee. He considered skipping shaving but one good look in the mirror made him revise his decision. His hand shook enough to make the process a little perilous at times but he managed it with only one small nick.

Moving from the bathroom to the bedroom he stuck his head out into the outer room for a second. Jensen looked up from where he sat in the armchair facing the bedroom. He didn't acknowledge Jared beyond eye contact.

Ducking back into the bedroom Jared rifled through the meager contents of his closet. He hadn't done laundry in almost a month and clean clothes were scarce, but he found a pair of boxers that, while not exactly clean weren't rank, either. A pair of newer and less comfortable jeans and a wrinkled button-down completed the outfit. Lastly he ran his fingers through his hair, trying to bring some kind of order to the damp, floppy mess. He paused for a deep breath then stepped back into the living room.

Jensen was still sitting in the armchair but now there were two steaming mugs of coffee on the table that had been cleared of empty tequila bottles. Beside Jared's mug were a large glass of water and a bottle of ibuprofen. Jared popped a small handful of pills and drained the water before reaching for the coffee.

Jensen had fixed it just the way he liked it.

"What did you want to say to me?" Jensen asked after they'd each fortified themselves with several large sips of coffee.

Jared set down his mug and wiped his hands nervously on his jean-clad thighs, swallowing heavily.

"I'm sorry," Jared said simply.

Jensen stared at him in disbelief. "You're sorry?" he said.

Jared rubbed at his face tiredly. "I've come to realize I have no right to ask for your forgiveness, but I just wanted you to know how very sorry I am that you got hurt, too. What I did was stupid. Stupid and selfish and I regretted it almost as soon as I'd done it. I went up to your apartment that first day thinking with my dick. When I realized I was as anxious to find out what your apartment was going to look like when you unpacked, to know what kind of books and music would fill your shelves, as I was to get you into bed, I knew I had to fix what I'd done. But then you came out of the shower and my brain dropped back down into my dick again."

Jared sighed. "After that I told myself a hundred times that I had to come clean to you but I was too damned afraid."

"Afraid," Jensen echoed.

"Of exactly what happened," Jared said wryly. "Not that I blame you."

"And because of me leaving you went on the world's biggest bender?"

"It wasn't only because you left," Jared said. "Do you have any idea how incredibly hard it is to live with yourself, to look at yourself in the mirror when you realize you've lost the most important thing in your life and all due to your own stupidity?"

Unable to meet Jensen's eyes, Jared looked down at the coffee mug cupped in his hand, turning it idly around and around.

The silence between them dragged out for an excruciating length of a few seconds before Jensen finally spoke. "I would have thought that the most important thing in your life was your magic."

Jared laughed humorlessly. "A couple of months ago I would have said the same thing. You know, my travels and the nature of my business and my magic may make my life seem strange and outlandish to some, but it's actually very structured and regimented. I used to think of myself as a free spirit but I've always been pretty grounded in the here and now. But then this absentminded, disorganized, green-eyed Texas boy moved in upstairs and my world suddenly became a carnival ride. And I loved it."

Jared suddenly pushed himself to his feet. He had to wait for a moment for the dizziness to fade before he finally looked at Jensen again. "Would you like some more coffee?" Jared asked politely.

Jensen wordlessly held up his empty cup.

Walking carefully into the kitchen, Jared refilled both cups. When he turned around Jensen was standing right behind him. Jared jerked in surprise slopping coffee onto his hand.

Hissing at the burn he hurriedly put the mugs on the breakfast bar and lifted the reddening hand to his mouth. Jensen _tsked_ , grabbed his hand and stuck it under the faucet, turning the water to cool.

"You know that Jim took me to see that bizarre Devine woman to break the spell," Jensen said, pulling off a paper towel and gently patting Jared's hand dry.

Jared nodded. "I felt it break," he said softly.

"She charged me out the ass for it and then made drink something that _tasted_ like ass. And not in a good way."

Jared swallowed nervously, not knowing where this was heading. "I figured," he said. "Her magic is potion based. I'm sorry. I'll pay you back the money."

"She really doesn't like you," Jensen mused, picking up the coffee cups and heading back to the living room. Instead of sitting on the chair he sat on the couch beside Jared.

"After the spell was gone I realized could tell the difference," Jensen said. "I was still pissed as hell at you but I no longer felt guilty and ambivalent about it. I was so fucking angry and hurt that I really couldn't think straight."

Jared nodded mutely.

"It took me a couple of weeks to settle down enough to realize something else."

Jared looked up at Jensen.

"I realized that though the compulsion was gone, I still loved you."

Jared felt a small flicker of hope light inside him and he knew that hope showed on his face.

"And the knowledge that you'd played with something so vital to me…"

"Not played!" Jared protested. "Never played."

"…that you _used_ that to manipulate me, just pissed me off all over again."

Jensen paused. "You didn't send Phouka to me, did you?"

"No," Jared shook his head. "I told you, he doesn't answer my call anymore."

"And Katie's not a witch?"

"No."

"Would Ash have the power to make Phouka do it?"

Jared snorted. "Ash can't even make Phouka quit leaving dead mice in his shoes."

"Well then, I guess that makes the fur ball a free agent with more sense than either of us."

Jensen stood and pushed Jared back against the cushions. He braced his hands on the back of the couch on either side of Jared's head and leaned over him.

"Never again," Jensen said fiercely. "You can't use people like that. We're not puppets for you to manipulate, even something as simple as the weak summoning spell that brought Jim here."

"I know," Jared said quickly, hope building in him stronger and stronger. "I don't…I mean I haven't for years and I promise - I swear - never again." Jared stopped and swallowed audibly, his face going pale. "I'll give up magic, if that's what you want," he forced out.

Jensen's eyes widened in surprise. He studied Jared's face and apparently believed what he saw.

Jensen lowered himself to straddle Jared's lap and surprised, Jared's hands came up automatically to clasp Jensen's hips.

"Well I don't think we need to get carried away," Jensen murmured. "I think maybe I'm kind of interested to see what kind of practical applications your talents have."

Jensen kissed him deeply and Jared nearly sobbed in relief.

Pulling away slightly Jared cupped Jensen's face and met his eyes. He touched his lips softly to Jensen's. "Thank you," Jared whispered, his lips still brushing against Jensen's.

Wrapping his arms around Jensen he pulled him in tightly and buried his face in Jensen's throat and just tried to breathe. Finally lifting his head a flicker of movement caught his eye.

Phouka lay in the big armchair, eyes half closed and tail waving languidly. Jared could hear the quiet rumble of his purr.

"Thank you," Jared repeated softly.

  
[ ](http://s41.photobucket.com/albums/e265/ixchel_55/?action=view&current=bellbookcandle.jpg)  


  
**The End**  


 

  
[ ](http://s41.photobucket.com/albums/e265/ixchel_55/?action=view&current=wantonPhouka.jpg)  


  


The **_real_** Phouka. Much less mysterious and magical, more of a goofball.


End file.
